On 20 October, Abdurrahman Wahid, chairman of the Nahdlatul Ulama, was elected president and inaugurated on the same day.

Wahid's opponent, Megawati Sukarnoputri was subsequently elected vice president the next day.

[1] The elections represented the first relatively democratic and peaceful transfer of power in the history of Indonesia.

There were initially four candidates for the presidency; Abdurrahman Wahid, B. J. Habibie, Megawati Sukarnoputri, and Yusril Ihza Mahendra.

The following day, Megawati was nominated by Gus Dur's party (PKB) as vice president and got elected, beating Hamzah Haz from the PPP by 396 votes to 284.