A tearful President Megawati Sukarnoputri told Indonesians on Tuesday to accept the result of the country's historic leadership ballot, but did not explicitly concede defeat to her former security chief.
Megawati's team has threatened to challenge the vote count from some areas, which would put winner Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in a bind and risk disrupting an orderly end to Indonesia's first direct presidential election.
The election commission on Monday declared Yudhoyono the winner of the September 20 presidential run-off by 25 million votes.
"Whoever is chosen in a democratic election has to be accepted, because that is a victory for all of us," Megawati, choking back tears, said in a speech at a ceremony to mark the anniversary of the military's founding.
Former general Yudhoyono, who has pledged to create jobs, curb graft and fight terrorism, was also present at the ceremony, one of Megawati's last official engagements. The two did not speak to each other and sat well apart.
Aides said later that Yudhoyono may visit the East Java town of Blitar, where his mother lives, on Wednesday and then his birthplace of Pacitan, returning to the Jakarta area on Thursday.
Yudhoyono has held off making a victory speech as he tries to make peace with Megawati and her party, the second-biggest in parliament. He quit her cabinet as security chief in March after a bitter row over his presidential ambitions.
Megawati has until Thursday to file a complaint over the election count at the Constitutional Court. One senior aide said Megawati would address the media then.
An aide to Yudhoyono told reporters nobody from Megawati's side had congratulated him although several foreign leaders, including British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Chinese president Hu Jintao and Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi had.
"He has not received it from (Megawati) so he can not formally respond. For the time being, we are concentrating on how to reunite this nation," said spokesman Muhammad Lutfi, adding Yudhoyono might speak out on Friday.
Yudhoyono has also received congratulations from the United States, Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, Russia, Thailand and several other countries.
Yudhoyono, 55, will be sworn in on October 20. He has said his cabinet will start work on that day. He could announce some positions before then, aides have said.
The election commission said Yudhoyono won 60.6 percent of the ballot to Megawati's 39.4 percent. It has declared the result valid, as have foreign and domestic monitors.