The Indonesian presidential election is heating up.

On April 7, presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto claimed that up to a million people were in attendance at his rally at Gelora Bung Karno Main Stadium in Jakarta, The Jakarta Post reported.

However, supporters of incumbent President Joko Widodo have since disputed the numbers, pointing out that it is impossible for the stadium to accommodate that many people.

"How could we give 1 million people money?"

Prabowo was reported to have stated the figure of a million people while addressing members of the rally committee, according to The Jakarta Post.

Prabowo said:

"Hey, [rally committee members], have you counted how many people there are here? More than 1 million. Did you give them money [to tell them] to come here? How could we give 1 million people money?"

Stadium can only seat 78,000 people

Supporters of Jokowi were sceptical about Prabowo's claim, pointing out that the numbers did not add up, The Jakarta Post highlighted.

With regard to the number of people that can be seated in the stadium, the venue’s official booking website places the number at 78,000.

Maximum number of people that can stand in a square metre is five to seven

Additionally, the president director of the Gelora Bung Karno Complex stated that the football field and athletic track together covered an area of more than 13,000 square meters, both The Jakarta Post and Kompas reported.

In giving the estimate of how many additional people could have been present on the field, The Jakarta Post and Kompas listed the maximum number of people who could stand in a square metre at the stadium as five and seven, respectively.

This meant that The Jakarta Post estimate of the stadium at full capacity was at 143,000 (78,000 people seated + 65,000 people on the field and track), while the Kompas estimate stood at 169,000 (78,000 people seated + 91,000 people on the field and track).

A million people means 70 people per square metre

The Jakarta Post added that for the count of a million to be accurate, it would have required 70 people to occupy each square metre of the field and track -- a feat that is physically impossible.

Kompas reported that even if the entire surface area of the stadium, at 65,888 square metres, was filled with seven people per square metre, the total number of people would still have only reached 461,219 people.

Rally lasted from 7am to 10am, but tens of thousands of supporters showed up by 3am

The field and track was packed with people was generally agreed with, however.

Despite the rally scheduled for 7am to 10am, tens of thousands of Prabowo's supporters had already filled the stadium's fields at 3am, Indonesian media Tempo reported.

Some 24 water trucks, carrying eight thousand liters of water each, were provided by the rally's organising committee for supporters to take ablution before performing the Islamic dawn prayer at 5am.

Both the spokesperson and the organising committee were also reported to have stated that a million people had attended the campaign, Tempo added.

Top image screenshot from Prabowo Subianto Facebook