"It takes a long time to overcome disappointment, and this is the government's duty," ICMI Chairman Jimly Asshiddiqie said at a breaking-of-the-fast event here on Thursday.
In fact, statements from the political elite that attack one another might have resulted in a divided society in Indonesia, he said, adding that this problem could have been resolved through a procedural approach but the wounds would take a long time to heal.
"In our public communication, there is hatred," said the former chief justice of Indonesia's Constitutional Court (MK).
He then cited his experience of leading the Constitutional Court when Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY) won the 2004 Presidential Elections.
At that time, SBY had stated that he would set up his cabinet prior to the General Elections Commission's (KPU's) official announcement. As a result, the Constitutional Court held a press conference to warn people that SBY's statement was not appropriate.
"We must firmly follow the existing procedures. After directly communicating with SBY, he finally accepted our argument, and delayed his announcement on the cabinet line-up," he said.
Referring to his own experience, he believed that a good communication approach with the supporters of both pairs of presidential and vice presidential candidates would enable them to understand and accept the existing procedures, he said.
On April 17, over 80 percent of the 192 million eligible voters across Indonesia had cast their ballots to elect representatives in the House of Representatives (DPR), Regional Representatives Council (DPD), as well as provincial and district/city legislative bodies.
The public also voted for their preferred presidential and vice presidential candidate pair at over 800 thousand polling stations across the archipelagic nation.
An exit poll conducted by the Prabowo-Sandi pair camp showed them bagging 55.4 percent of the votes, Coordinator of the pair's National Winning Body's spokespersons Dahnil Anzar Simanjuntak revealed.
Concurrently, quick count results extracted from several pollsters telecast live by several television stations indicated a steady gain for the Joko Widodo-Ma'ruf Amin pair, surpassing the Prabowo-Sandi pair.
Both camps presently look forward to the General Elections Commission's (KPU's) real count, as the final result is legally binding.
EDITED BY INE
Translator: Rahmad Nasution
Editor: Fardah Assegaf
Copyright © ANTARA 2019
