The ex-general defeated in Indonesia's presidential race will challenge the result in court, even while world leaders rush to congratulate president-elect Joko Widodo.
Prabowo Subianto quit the contest hours before Joko Widodo was to be named the winner on Tuesday, blasting the election process as "legally tainted".
But his team called a media conference on Wednesday to say Mr Prabowo had withdrawn only from the counting process.
As he remains a candidate, he can challenge in the constitutional court, spokesman Tantowi Yahya says.
"We cannot and will not ignore the evidence while the will of the people remains in question," he said.
The team claims there was widespread fraud in the July 9 poll, putting 21 million votes in question.
It wants a re-vote in 52,000 polling stations, although the team admits it doesn't know if the doubtful votes could give Mr Prabowo the win.
"For sure, yes, they don't all belong to us," Mr Yahya said.
The team claims voters could have washed ink from their fingers that designates a ballot cast and re-voted, and speculated hackers may have been responsible for fraud.
Mr Joko, known by his nickname "Jokowi", won the hard-fought election battle with 53 per cent of the vote to Mr Prabowo's 47 per cent.
Congratulations to the popular Jakarta governor have come from leaders all over the world, including Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott.
Mr Prabowo wants leaders to refrain "until due process is complete".
But Mr Joko says he has taken several calls since Tuesday night, starting with Indonesia's President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who remains in office until October.
"President Obama called at 11am," he told reporters at city hall on Wednesday, where he was back at work as governor.
"We want to strengthen the relationship between Indonesia-America, Indonesia-Singapore and Indonesia-Australia."
In his acceptance speech on Tuesday night, Mr Joko called for Indonesia to move on from the fierce partisanship of the campaign, into a new era of unity.
"Forget number one, forget number two," Mr Joko said. "Let's go back to one Indonesia."
It capped a remarkable rise for Mr Joko, 53, who was raised in a bamboo shack and has since been recognised as one of the world's most effective civic leaders.
He will be inaugurated on October 20, pending the constitutional court ruling in late August, which only prolongs Indonesia's election uncertainty.
Analysts do not believe Mr Prabowo's challenge can succeed, given Mr Joko won the election by a convincing 8.4 million votes.
Mr Prabowo's brother and adviser Hashim Djojohadikusumo says they will only stop when their legal and political avenues are exhausted, "when we get a satisfactory answer, redress or steps are taken that address our grievances".
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