Page 11 - ARUBA TODAY

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WORLD NEWS Friday 28 June 2019

Widodo seals 2nd term as Indonesia leader after court battle

Associated Press of the vote but also re-
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) vealed a polarized elector-
— Indonesia's top court ate. Subianto, who allied
Thursday rejected a losing himself with groups that
presidential candidate's want Islamic rather than
allegations of massive and secular law to prevail in
systematic election fraud, the world's largest Muslim-
sealing a second term for majority nation, won big
Joko Widodo, who in fend- victories in conservative
ing off the rising power of provinces.
Islamists has drifted toward The legal challenge's failure
authoritarian tactics. was widely expected after
The Constitutional Court, documents filed with the
which took a marathon court showed that much
nine hours to publicly read of the evidence for the al-
its reasoning on the case, leged fraud in the April 17
said the legal team of the election was printouts of
losing candidate, former tangentially related news
Gen. Prabowo Subianto, articles from online sites of
had failed to prove allega- varying quality.
tions that included millions The evidence purporting to
of fake voters and biased show police bias in favor of
state institutions. The court's Widodo included allega-
ruling is final. tions from an anonymous
Thousands of police and Incumbent Indonesian President Joko Widodo, left, and his running mate Ma'ruf Amin wave to Twitter account. The hear-
soldiers were deployed to reporters, in Jakarta, Indonesia, Thursday, June 27, 2019. ings were broadcast on
boost security in Jakarta as Associated Press national TV and showed
authorities strove to avoid the testimony of some wit-
a repeat of deadly riots ered near the court melted on a TV screen outside in- The official election re- nesses disintegrating under
last month. Pro-Subianto away around dusk as the dicated their candidate's sults released last month questioning from the panel
protesters who had gath- broadcast of proceedings case was unsuccessful. showed Widodo won 55.5% of judges.q

NKorea urges South to stop mediating between North, US

Associated Press nuclear diplomacy. There Washington and Pyong-
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — have been no public offi- yang to facilitate talks be-
North Korea said Thursday cial meetings between the tween the countries.
South Korea must stop try- United States and North Ko- Talks of revival of diploma-
ing to mediate between rea since the breakdown cy, however, has flared af-
Pyongyang and Washing- of the second summit be- ter Trump and Kim recently
ton. tween President Donald exchanged personal let-
The North's Foreign Ministry Trump and North Korean ters. Moon said earlier this
also repeated its demand leader Kim Jong Un in Ha- week that U.S. and North
that the United States must noi in February. Korean officials were hold-
work out mutually accept- The Hanoi summit fell apart ing "behind-the-scene
able proposals to salvage after Trump rejected Kim's talks" to try to set up a third
a deadlocked nuclear ne- calls for sweeping sanc- summit between Trump
gotiations by the end of tions relief in return for a lim- and Kim.
December. ited disarmament step. The Moon also said talks be- U.S. flag is seen as protesters hold a rally demanding the peace
The statement was an ap- summit's collapse was a tween the two Koreas on the Korean peninsula and to stop sanctions on North Korea,
parent expression of dis- blow to South Korean Presi- have been under way ahead of U.S. President Donald Trump's scheduled visit near the
pleasure with Seoul and dent Moon Jae-in, a lib- through unspecified "vari- U.S. embassy in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, June 27, 2019.
Associated Press
Washington over stalled eral who shuttled between ous channels."q