Indonesia’s parliament postpones election rule change after protests

Indonesia’s parliament has backed away from a controversial attempt to change the country’s electoral laws after protests over what critics claimed was an attempted power grab by outgoing president Joko Widodo and his allies. Demonstrators on Thursday clashed with police outside the parliament in Jakarta, trying to scale a fence into the building and attacking the gate. Reuters news agency said security forces fired water cannons and tear gas to try to break up the protests, while protesters carried a mock guillotine featuring the face of the 63-year-old Widodo, who is widely known as “Jokowi”. Sufmi Dasco Ahmad, deputy speaker of parliament, announced on Thursday evening that parliament would postpone the planned rule change, which would have lowered age limits for candidates to contest elections. Prior to Dasco’s statement, critics of the change had been concerned parliament might pass it later on Thursday, after protesters were dispersed. The planned change, which would have in effe

Indonesia’s parliament has backed away from a controversial attempt to change the country’s electoral laws after protests over what critics claimed was an attempted power grab by outgoing president Joko Widodo and his allies. Demonstrators on Thursday clashed with police outside the parliament in Jakarta, trying to scale a fence into the building and attacking the gate. Reuters news agency said security forces fired water cannons and tear gas to try to break up the protests, while protesters carried a mock guillotine featuring the face of the 63-year-old Widodo, who is widely known as “Jokowi”