Indonesia's grassroots have mobilized to protect election ballots from more than 480,000 polling stations across the largest archipelago in southeast Asia to ensure a transparent and an unbiased presidential election results.

In different sub-districts, widespread information was disseminated to keep a close watch of the official vote count. Indonesians took to social media sites, text messaging and word-of-mouth to ensure the results are transparent.

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According to Taufik Basari, a lawyer and member of Widodo's campaign team, ordinary citizens have taken it upon themselves to monitor closely how the ballot is counted.

"Some people started a link where forms with suspicious results can be put online," Basari said. "These will help our volunteers or those who have snapped pictures of this form to check against the ones uploaded officially on the KPU (Election Commission) website."

The KPU, Indonesia's election committee, launched a process of scanning and uploading the ballots online to allow public scrutiny. Indonesia is one of the most graft-ridden countries in the world, and both parties vying for the highest public position have expressed their concerns.

The tallying of votes began on Sunday and is expected to finish on July 22.

On Saturday, Indonesia's outgoing President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono urged that the vote count should be as transparent as possible because there were fears from both parties that the other may tamper with the ballots.

Last Wednesday, presidential candidates Jakarta governor Joko Widodo and ex-general Prabowo Subianto both declared after victory based on initial, but unofficial tallies. The unofficial results said Widodo won, but Subianto's campaign team said the ex-general was leading the presidential race.

Subianto's team reported that some ballot boxes were stolen and accused Widodo's supporters of intimidation.

Outgoing President Susilo Bambagn Yudhoyono then pressed that the election committee has now an important and critical role.

"I suggested that the (commission) invite both candidates and their teams to monitor the counting process so they can see the counting on a day-by-day basis," Yudhoyono said.

He told journalists at the presidential palace in Jakarta that through a transparent process, both parties would know that the counting of the votes was carried out carefully.

TagsPresidential Votes in Indonesia, Widodo vs. Subianto, transparency, polls, Official Vote Count