VZCZCXRO1524
OO RUEHDT RUEHPB
DE RUEHJA #1343 2251052
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 131052Z AUG 09
FM AMEMBASSY JAKARTA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 3064
INFO RUCNARF/ASEAN REGIONAL FORUM COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHINGTON DC

UNCLAS JAKARTA 001343 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR EAP, EAP/MTS, EAP/MLS, EAP/RSP 
NSC FOR J. BADER 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV KDEM ID
SUBJECT: YUDHOYONO OFFICIAL VICTOR AS COURT THROWS OUT 
MEGAWATI, KALLA LAWSUITS 
 
REF: A. JAKARTA 1240 
     ¶B. JAKARTA 1305 AND PREVIOUS 
 
¶1.  (U) This message is Sensitive but Unclassified -- Please 
handle accordingly. 
 
¶2.  (U) The Constitutional Court on August 12 rejected 
lawsuits filed by losing presidential candidates Megawati 
Sukarnoputri and Vice President Jusuf Kalla (JK) alleging 
widespread electoral fraud in the July 8 presidential 
election and demanding that a second round of elections be 
held.  The ruling, which was widely expected, removed the 
last potential technical obstacle to President Yudhoyono's 
re-election, and he thus officially became President-elect. 
His inauguration will be held on October 20. 
 
AS EXPECTED, COURT THROWS OUT CHALLENGE TO ELECTION 
 
¶3.  (SBU) Ruling that the losing candidates had failed to 
provide sufficient evidence to back up their allegations, the 
Constitutional Court threw out all the legal complaints in 
the losing candidates' separate but parallel suits.  Given 
the scale of the Yudhoyono victory -- he received over 60 
percent of votes to Megawati's 27 and Kalla's 12 percent -- 
most observers felt that Megawati and Kalla's legal teams had 
a nearly impossible task.  The suits claimed the Elections 
Commission (KPU) had rigged the election by including 28 
million fraudulent names on the electoral rolls.  Although 
the voter lists were acknowledged by the KPU and others both 
within and outside the government to have been plagued with 
errors, it appeared from the outset that the numbers involved 
were not of a magnitude sufficient to have determined the 
outcome of the election. 
 
MOVING ON, MENDING FENCES 
 
¶4.  (SBU) With the lawsuits behind them both losing camps 
have indicated they intend to move on gracefully.  Megawati 
and Kalla both issued statements saying they accepted the 
court's verdict (with some reservations) and urged their 
supporters to accept the ruling calmly.  President 
Yudhoyono's camp extended an olive branch, saying the legal 
process was a sign of a mature democracy and urging everyone 
to unite for the good of the nation.  There are other signs 
that both Kalla's Golkar and Megawati's Democratic Party of 
Struggle (PDI-P) are reaching out to the President's Partai 
Demokrat (PD) to mend fences.  Kalla and others from Golkar 
have put out feelers toward joining the new Yudhoyono 
coalition. PDI-P has been more equivocal.  Although 
Megawati's husband, PDI-P Chief Patron Taufik Kiemas and some 
other PDI-P members have made clear their desire to join the 
government, most analysts believe Megawati's course to date 
will hold and PDI-P will remain in opposition. 
HUME