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Personnel of the Indonesian military have been told to be on their highest alert in the running up to the announcement of vote real count results slate for July 22, anticipating public disturbance from possible clashes between supporters of the two president hopefuls running in the election.
The military would also take anticipating moves on act of terror.
The military, however, pledged not to use live bullets in dealing with the possible political disturbance conducted by supporters of both president candidates.
"In dealing with any circumstance, should crucial situation is taking place I ordered that no troops bring live bullets. My instruction is only using empty and rubber bullets," Indonesian Military Commander General Moeldoko said here after inspecting the military's readiness in several of army's command units on Wednesday.
"You should not hesitate at taking actions as long as you comply with the military order. Be neutral, firm and professional. As long as they were done, the TNI (Indonesian military) commander will take the responsibility. Maintain your preparedness, I believe that the TNI would always be the determinant one in ushering the nation," he said in a statement.
He called on all military personnel to listen to the ongoing political development related to the presidential election process.
Indonesia deployed 23,000 military personnel from all forces consisted of the army, navy and the air forces to assist police in securing the election process. Apart from that, some 10,000 reserve troops were also standby for backup, reports said.
A potential clash between supporters of president hopefuls Joko Widodo and Prabowo Subianto related to vote real count announcement was disclosed by the TNI headquarters over the weekend.
The clash might occur in celebration process conducted by supporters of certain president candidate who are convinced of winning the election, TNI Spokesperson Maj. Gen. Fuad Basya said. He added that such situations which might lead to clash had occurred in quick count process.
He added that both president candidates have called on their supporters to calm down.
"But we remain on high alert. Prior to July 22 is the most vulnerable period that could be explored by certain parties intending to incite riot, taking advantages from the election process in Indonesia for their own interests," he said in TNI headquarters on Friday.
As the real count process is now progressing in the General Election Commission (KPU), each president hopeful camp also does the same thing, claiming to win votes in several parts of the country.
Both president candidates Joko Widodo and Prabowo Subianto claimed victories in this year's election as results of quick counts carried out by pollster agencies under their control favored their wins with neck-to-neck votes in the afternoon on the July 9 election day.
