Following a failed lawsuit from his opponent Prabowo Subianto and Hatta Rajasa, he was officially inaugurated on 20 October 2014, becoming the seventh President of Indonesia.

[6] During the aforementioned gubernatorial election, his campaigning portrayed him as a reformer in contrast to other candidates and adopted a non-formal approach appealing directly to the voters.

[7] With incumbent president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono hitting term limits in 2014, Jokowi was seen as a major contender for the position due to his popularity and he topped initial polls.

[10] On 14 March 2014, leader of PDI-P Megawati Soekarnoputri announced that her party would be endorsing Jokowi's candidacy in the 2014 presidential elections on July that year.

[16] His candidacy received criticism particularly from the side of Prabowo Subianto, who also was running for presidency and had previously supported Jokowi in the 2012 gubernatorial election.

[24] The pair registered to the General Elections Commission (Indonesian: Komisi Pemilihan Umum/KPU) on 19 May, accompanied by politicians such as Puan Maharani and Tjahjo Kumolo.

Included in the team are the chairman of the coalition's political parties as advisors: Megawati Soekarnoputri, Muhaimin Iskandar, Surya Paloh and Wiranto.

The team was headed by PDI-P secretary general and People's Representative Council member Tjahjo Kumolo, and included lawmakers from the coalition parties, retired generals such as Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan and A. M. Hendropriyono, and religious figures such as former Nahdlatul Ulama chairman Hasyim Muzadi.

Academician Anies Baswedan and former Blitar mayor Djarot Saiful Hidayat, who would both later serve as Governor of Jakarta, were also in the team.

[32] The serial number 2 assigned to him resulted in rock band Slank creating a song for his campaign, which was called "Salam Dua Jari" (two-finger salute).

[39] The term became commonly used in social media as a derogatory for supporters of either side or the large number of fake accounts.

[43] The debates were the first in Indonesia's electoral history to be broadcast live on television and the first one, held on 9 June, covered topics such as democracy, legal certainty and government transparency, in addition to human rights.

During the debate, he was questioned regarding the varying Australia-Indonesia relations, in which he replied that "the two countries have a distrust problem, which needs to be solved through democracy".

[56] Several hours before the official announcement by the KPU on 22 July 2014, Prabowo withdrew from the election, claiming "massive systemic fraud" and declaring that he would challenge the results in court.

[60] According to Widodo, Barack Obama called him in Indonesian, giving his congratulations and saying that he looked forward to meeting him in the APEC conference in China.

[3] Initial audit reports of campaign finances from both sides were checked by the Indonesia Corruption Watch, which noted that the discrepancy between earnings and expenditures of the Widodo team was irregular.