JAKARTA (AFP) - An emotional Megawati Sukarnoputri urged Indonesia to accept the results of landmark polls which delivered a landslide victory to her former security minister, clearing his path to the presidency.
In a speech to mark Indonesia's armed forces day, she came the closest yet to conceding defeat since official results released Monday declared Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono the landslide victor of the September 20 elections.
"All sides should be able to accept (this) well, uphold the values of democracy and mutually respect each other," Megawati said Tuesday.
"We have to be able to show the world that our nation is a big nation and one of noble ethics," she said, visibly choking back tears.
Yudhoyono, who will be sworn in as Indonesia's first democratically elected president on October 20, has declined to make formal acceptance speech, saying he would wait until Megawati had made her declaration.
However the retired general, who won 60.62 percent of more than 114 million votes cast against 39.38 percent for the outgoing president, was scheduled to speak later Tuesday.
Megawati's campaign team meanwhile said it was deciding whether to lodge an appeal at the country's Constitution Court alleging ballot irregularities that they said would reduce Yudhoyono's formidable 24 million vote lead.
"We have until Thursday to submit our appeal to the Constitutional Court," Arif Wibowo, deputy chairman of Megawati's election monitoring team, told AFP.
Yudhoyono faces tough challenges to fulfill his pre-poll pledges of revitalising an economy that enjoyed stability under Megawati but failed to show significant growth while unemployment remained high.
He has also promised to combat endemic corruption which has scared away vital foreign investment, although he may struggle to push through new legislation in a parliament where his political party is in minority.
On Monday Yudhoyono sketched his blueprint for a new cabinet, promising it would be dominated by professionals who he would personally scrutinise for "capacity, integrity and dedication".
Jakarta's markets reached new highs on Monday amid speculation of better economic times ahead, although gains were curbed on Tuesday amid profit taking.
Financial monitors Fitch Ratings agency said it had raised the outlook on Indonesia's sovereign ratings to "positive" from "stable" to reflect diminished uncertainty following the election result and an improved outlook for reforms.
Monday's official result drew a line under a marathon election year for Indonesia, with two rounds of presidential voting and legislative polls in April, which Megawati hailed as a "major achievement for our nation".
Indonesia's emergence as the world's third largest democracy comes just six years after former president Suharto was forced to stand down, ending three decades of authoritarian rule.
Congratulations, led by US President George W. Bush, have already arrived for Yudhoyono, the preferred candidate among the international community which sees him as tough on Indonesia's growing problem of militant violence.
Indonesia has suffered three major terrorist strikes in two years under Megawati. Those attacks and others have been blamed on the Al-Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah regional terror group.
Some 202 people died in the October 2002 Bali bombings, a car bomb strike on Jakarta's Marriott hotel in August 2003 left 12 dead, and nine were killed last month in an attack on Australia's Jakarta embassy.