With vote counts tallied by several trusted polling organizations,  incumbent president Joko Widodo appeared Wednesday to win a second term as Indonesia’s president, defeating a retired general who had courted nationalist and conservative Islamic forces in a campaign waged on the country’s fault lines.

His apparent victory over Prabowo Subianto in a presidential election held Wednesday marked a rare bright spot in a region that has trended toward authoritarian and strongman rule.

The overwhelmingly peaceful and orderly vote also underscored how contested, democratic elections have become the norm in Muslim-majority Indonesia, two decades after the bloody end of authoritarian rule under Suharto.

Widodo has reportedly urged supporters to wait for official results as they broke out in cheers, chanting his nickname, Jokowi, and heralding his reelection.

“From the implication of exit polls and quick count, all of which we’ve seen, we have to be patient until [the election authority’s] calculation, he said.

Widodo was gathered with his inner circle, including his running mate, influential cleric Maruf Amin, and the head of his political party, former president Megawati Sukarnoputri, at a ballroom in central Jakarta, smiling and laughing.