TEHRAN, May 23- Seven people have died in election violence in the Indonesian capital, police said Thursday, as calm returned to the city and the losing presidential candidate prepared to challenge the result in court.
TEHRAN, Young Journalists Club (YJC) - The apparently orchestrated chaos that turned central Jakarta into a battleground started Tuesday night during peaceful protests over official results that confirmed President Joko Widodo had won the April 17 election, securing him a second term.
National police spokesman Muhammad Iqbal said several hundred have been arrested and seven deaths were confirmed. Police, who responded to the rioting with water cannons, rubber bullets and tear gas, deny using live ammunition.
The defeated candidate, former General Prabowo Subianto, who also lost to Widodo in 2014, has refused to accept the result and instead declared himself the winner.
Subianto and his campaign have alleged massive election fraud but not provided any credible evidence. They didn't file a Constitutional Court challenge to the election result on Thursday as planned but have until Friday to do so.
The election supervisory agency earlier this week rejected Subianto's complaint about the election's integrity after the only evidence of fraud provided by his team was links to online articles.
Source: AP
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