Indonesia’s constitutional court shot down challenges to Prabowo Subianto‘s victory in the country’s presidential election but did not ban his poll rivals from ever running for president again, contrary to claims made in an edited video viewed hundreds of thousands of times on social media. Live footage of the constitutional court’s decision shows judges did not ban Prabowo’s rivals and the court’s written decisions also make no mention of a purported ban.
“Ganjar Pranowo and Anies Baswedan are banned by the Constitutional Court from running for president in Indonesia ever again,” read Indonesian-language text on a TikTok video shared on April 23, 2024
The video, which has more than 450,000 views, combines clips of the presidential candidates and their running mates reacting to a court ruling.
One of the court’s judges appears to say the candidates — referring to them by their candidate numbers — are “not allowed to run in the Indonesian presidential election ever again“.
The video was also posted elsewhere on TikTok here and here, as well as on Facebook, YouTube and video-sharing platform SnackVideo, racking up more than 18.6 million views in total.
It was shared a day after Indonesia’s constitutional court rejected challenges to Prabowo’s victory that were filed by his two main rivals, who alleged state interference and rule changes that supported his ticket.
Anies and Ganjar filed lawsuits in March 2024, demanding a re-run of the February 2024 election — in which Prabowo won nearly 60 percent of the vote.
Following the court’s decision, Indonesia’s election commission formally declared Prabowo the country’s next president.
But the constitutional court did not also ban Anies and Ganjar from ever running for president again.
Court rulings
A keyword search on YouTube led to a live stream of the constitutional court handing down its decisions, which was published on local broadcaster Kompas TV’s official channel on April 22 (archived link).
The clip of Anies and his running mate Muhaimin Iskandar corresponds to the 4:24:43 mark of the Kompas TV video.
The clip of Ganjar and his running mate Mahfud MD corresponds with footage shown at the video’s 4:52:21 mark.
Below is a screenshot comparison of the false post (left) and the Kompas TV footage (top and bottom right):
Part of the audio heard in the false TikTok video was taken from between the Kompas TV footage’s 4:50:48 and 4:51:13 marks.
It then jumps to audio used between the Kompas TV video’s 4:51:29 and 4:51:42 marks.
This audio is of constitutional justice Arsul Sani explaining why the court is rejecting Anies and Ganjar’s challenges about alleged violations of election campaign rules.
The false post then inserts the voice of someone imitating a judge, saying that Anies and Ganjar were now banned from running for the presidency again.
But at no point in the live footage carried by Kompas TV did a judge “ban” Anies and Ganjar.
The court’s written decisions here and here also make no mention of Anies and Ganjar being banned from ever running for the top office again (archived links here and here).
AFP has debunked other false claims related to the 2024 Indonesian election here.
David Turner is a globe-trotting journalist who brings a global perspective to our readers. With a commitment to shedding light on international events, he explores complex geopolitical issues, offering a nuanced view of the world’s most pressing challenges.
