Six people died in civil unrest that gripped parts of Jakarta on Tuesday night after the election commission confirmed that President Joko Widodo won last month’s election, the governor of the Indonesian capital said.
Protesters burned vehicles and threw rocks at police, who responded with tear gas and rubber bullets in a bid to quell the unrest.
The protesters tried to force their way into the downtown offices of the election supervisory agency late on Tuesday and clashes have continued since then.
“As per 9 o’clock this morning, there were 200 people hurt being brought to five hospitals,” Gov. Anies Baswedan told broadcaster TVOne.
“The number of people dead was six,” he said, adding that hospitals were conducting post mortems to determine the cause of death.
Hundreds of protesters were still locked in a tense stand-off with police in central Jakarta on Wednesday after a night of violence.
National Police spokesman Dedi Prasetyo said more than 20 suspected provocateurs have been arrested.
Responding to reports of fatalities, he denied the police had fired live rounds.
“We are still checking, but I need to reiterate that police officers were not equipped with live bullets.”
During the night, vehicles and a paramilitary police dormitory were set ablaze as police using tear gas, rubber bullets and water cannon battled protesters who threw molotov cocktails and burning projectiles.
Indonesian authorities say 40,000 police and army personnel are on duty across Jakarta to maintain security.
