Foreign Mass Media and Envoy Accused of Intervention in Election

Sleman, Yogyakarta (Antara) - The Jenderal Soedirman Center (JSC) said it has seen a number of forms of foreign intervention in the presidential election. "(We have) found foreign interventions in the process of presidential election," JSC chairman Bugiakso said, citing foreign mass media apparently took side with Joko Widodo (Jokowi), one of the presidential candidate and "kill" the rival candidate Prabowo Subianto with their arguments. Intervention has also been committed by US Ambassador Robert Blake through his article in June carried by the "Wall Street Journal" discrediting Prabowo Subianto, Bugiakso said. "In addition, there were press release stating candidate No. 2 (Jokowi) as the winner of the 2014 presidential election, whereas the result of the election is yet to be announced on July 22," he said. He said he suspected that there has been an organized scenario to rally support to put pressure on the Election Commission (KPU) in carrying out vote counting. There has been massive attempt to lead the public opinion into believing that Jokowi and his running mate Jusuf Kalla (JK) are the winners, he said. "The official result would be announced only on July 22, but since July 9 (the election day) foreign mass media already reported that Jokowi won the election," he said. He named ABC News Australia among the foreign mass media committing interventions in the election by saying Jokowo had won the election after interviewing the director of Roy Morgan, a polling agency that stated Jokowi the winner. "Roy Morgan has proved wrong in its prediction of the result of the earlier legislative election saying that "Jokowi effect" would bring PDIP to a big victory of 35 percent of the number of parliamentary seats," he said. (*)