Indonesia's Joko Widodo wins second term as president

Indonesia's Joko Widodo won another term as president of the world's third-biggest democracy, official results showed Tuesday, after his rival Prabowo Subianto, a retired general, alleged widespread cheating.

The elections commission was expected to announce the final tally of the April 17 poll on Wednesday in the Southeast Asian nation of 260 million.

But amid fears about unrest and street demonstrations in response to the final count, the official result was released early with little advance notice.

Widodo and his vice-presidential running mate Ma'ruf Amin won the election by a 55.5 percent to 44.5 percent margin over Subianto and Sandiaga Uno, the commission said.

Some 85.6 million Indonesians cast their ballot in favour of Widodo out of about 154 million voters, it added.

"This ruling... will be effective immediately," the commission's chair Arief Budiman said in a live-streamed announcement that was broadcast on major media.

Widodo, 57, had been widely predicted to win according to unofficial results.

But Subianto, 67, has vowed to challenge any victory for his rival, alleging widespread voter fraud and cheating, and warned that it could spark street protests across the world's biggest Muslim-majority nation.

Widodo held off declaring victory after unofficial results emerged last month as Subianto insisted he was the archipelago's next leader.

(AFP)