Reuters/Jakarta

Indonesia's highest court unanimously upheld last month's presidential election result on Thursday, paving the way for Joko Widodo to take over as the next leader of the world's third largest democracy.

The Constitutional Court rejected a last-ditch attempt by losing presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto to overturn the result that he believed was tainted by widespread cheating. The verdict cannot be appealed.

"The court rejects ... all applications from the applicant (Prabowo) by all nine judges," said Constitutional Court Chief Hamdan Zoelva.

The Elections Commission last month declared Widodo the winner by nearly 8.5 million votes, or more than 53 percent of the vote, in the closest presidential election in Indonesia's history.

Widodo will take office on Oct. 20.