JAKARTA - A new controversial documentary on the Indonesian election, released days before Polling Day, has drawn strong reactions, with front-runner candidate Prabowo Subianto’s team calling it “slanderous” and a “hate narrative”.

Dirty Vote, a two-hour documentary uploaded to YouTube on Feb 11, gained over three million views in less than 24 hours. It features legal experts who allege that fraud has dominated the election process.

It also accuses the authorities of not being fair and of favouring Mr Prabowo and his running mate Gibran Rakabuming Raka, who is President Joko Widodo’s elder son.

Dirty Vote is produced and directed by Mr Dandhy Dwi Laksono, an activist, investigative journalist and film-maker.

He is known for the 2019 documentary film Sexy Killers, released before the 2019 Indonesian General Election. It alleged collusion between the political establishment and the coal mining industry.

Mr Habiburokhman, deputy chair of the Prabowo-Gibran campaign team, said at a press conference in Jakarta on Feb 11 that much of what was depicted in the Dirty Vote documentary was untrue.

“Most of what is conveyed in the film is slanderous – a hate narrative that is very assumptive and very unscientific,” said Mr Habiburokhman, who, like many Indonesians, goes by one name.

Some 205 million Indonesians are expected to choose their next president on Feb 14. Mr Widodo is constitutionally barred from running again after serving two terms.

The other two candidates in the running are former Jakarta governor Anies Baswedan and former central Java governor Ganjar Pranowo.

The documentary features legal experts, who, among other things, discuss what they feel have been attempts to help the Prabowo-Gibran pair win in the months leading up to the election.

For instance, it mentions how Mr Gibran handed out milk at a public car-free day event in the capital city on Dec 3, 2023.

A 2016 Jakarta gubernatorial order bars “events for the interests of political parties” during car-free days, when vehicles are banned from major thoroughfares as part of an environmental push.

The archipelago’s laws also ban election participants from involving children in their campaigns.

The film also alleged that Mr Prabowo, who is Defence Minister, has received support from his ministry’s social media accounts.

On Jan 21, local media reported that the ministry’s official X account had deleted a tweet containing a hashtag supporting the Prabowo-Gibran campaign.

In a press release, the team behind Dirty Vote said the experts in its documentary explained how various instruments of power have allegedly been used for the purpose of winning elections, despite such actions potentially harming the country.

Despite these allegations, Mr Prabowo’s campaign team has no plans to pursue legal action, said Mr Habiburokhman.

“We are now focused on keeping the peace of the voting process,” he said at the press conference.

Indonesia is currently undergoing a three-day cooling-off period in which no campaigning for the election is allowed, following 75 days of intense hustings.

A planned public screening of Dirty Vote on the evening of Feb 12 in Bloc M, an area in Jakarta popular with youth, was cancelled at the last minute.

X user @salam4jari, who organised the screening, announced the cancellation on X late on Feb 11 and said it is still unknown why the event was cancelled.

Mr Todung Mulya Lubis, deputy head for legal affairs in Mr Ganjar’s campaign team, said at a press conference on Feb 11 that he did not agree with the view that the film was slanderous, adding that it was instead “good political education”.

He said he hoped people would not overreact over the film, and avoid reporting it to the police, lest it stoke tensions, which he said would be “unhealthy for us as a nation”.

Meanwhile, Mr Anies’ running mate, former minister of manpower and transmigration Muhaimin Iskandar, shared a link to the documentary on his X account with the caption: “Have you watched this?”

The election supervisory agency (Bawaslu), which Dirty Vote criticises, has responded to the documentary, saying that it accepts public criticism but added that it has carried out its duties lawfully.

In a separate press conference on Feb 12 at the Bawaslu office in central Jakarta, chairman Rahmat Bagja called on Indonesians to avoid actions that could cause problems for the election process.

“It is better to avoid things that could cause conflict and so on, because the voting period is now approaching. Don’t let the voting period be disrupted because of this,” he said.