1) Indonesia election: presidential rival challenges Widodo victory in court

Agencies @ TheGuardian.com, May 25, 2019

Prabowo Subianto files lawsuit in constitutional court in Jakarta, scene of fatal clashes between protesters and police this week

2) Photos: Deadly Post-election Riots in Indonesia

By AlanTaylor @ TheAtlantic.com, May 23, 2019, 25 PHOTOS​

Yesterday in Jakarta, after it was announced that incumbent President Joko Widodo had been reelected as president of Indonesia, beating former General Prabowo Subianto by 11 percentage points, Subianto’s supporters took to the streets. Protesters made claims of widespread cheating, and clashed with riot police in several locations in Jakarta, setting fire to vehicles and buildings. Police reportedly responded with tear gas and rubber bullets, arresting hundreds. After 24 hours of chaos, six people were reported to have died in the protests—the cause of their deaths are under investigation—and more than 200 were listed as injured. Subianto says he plans to contest the election results in court [.....]

3) Very helpful backgrounder from last month:

Joko Widodo: how 'Indonesia's Obama' failed to live up to the hype

As elections loom in one of south-east Asia’s only true democracies, some wonder whether the president has done enough

By Kate Lamb from Jakarta @ TheGuardian.com, April 4, 2019

Five years ago he was south-east Asia’s democratic poster boy, Indonesia’s Obama. His face plastered across Time magazine with three words: A New Hope.

When Joko Widodo, or “Jokowi”, was elected president of one of the only true remaining democracies in the region it was a moment of triumphant vindication – proof that outliers could trump an entrenched oligarchy, that an ordinary Indonesian could make it.

A wildly popular politician, Jokowi’s rapid rise from successful furniture entrepreneur to beloved small-town mayor, reform-minded Jakarta governor and ultimately the president, was something of a political fairytale for Indonesia’s young democracy.

The hype was even more exaggerated because of the stark contrast to his opponent, Prabowo Subianto. A former military general accused of human rights abuses and the ex son-in-law of dictatorial ruler Suharto, Prabowo epitomised the autocratic old guard, still vying for power decades on.

Fast forward five years and Jokowi and Prabowo will again compete for the presidency of the world’s third-largest democracy, on 17 April, but this time the mood is vastly different.

With the rights of LGBT and some religious minorities plummeting, a series of arrests raising alarm bells over freedom of expression, questions about the neutrality of the police and plans for military encroachment on civil space, the notion that Jokowi is a paean of democratic progress has been steadily undermined.

‘Our democracy has no meaning’

The executions, for one, were an ominous start.

Within two months of taking office in 2014 the new president unexpectedly signed off on a round of capital punishment, citing questionable data [.....]