The outgoing president has said he intends to leave the process to political parties, but his actions betray a different reality after he moved to meet with opposition leader Surya Paloh of the NasDem Party after months of unspoken support for the presumptive election winner, Prabowo Subianto.

Barred from reelection, Jokowi has faced mounting accusations of state interference in the lead-up to last week’s polls, particularly with his son Gibran Rakabuming Raka running for the vice presidency following an unethical intervention led by his brother-in-law at the Constitutional Court in October.

And while the widely popular president sought to maintain his distance in the final few days before the election, his closed-door meeting with Surya on Sunday produced one of the earliest indications of political reconciliation after Prabowo’s presumptive win.

After the meeting, one NasDem executive suggested that Surya “didn’t want the country and its people to be divided by elections”, according to local reports.

The media mogul’s meeting with Jokowi, which NasDem insists was made at the invitation of the President, raised fresh speculation that the incumbent was seeking to lure parties outside of Prabowo’s coalition to join the incoming government, although the Palace disputed this. Surya and his party had backed rival presidential candidate Anies Baswedan on a campaign of change.

During a government event in Jakarta on Monday, together with Defense Minister Prabowo, Jokowi said he sought to be a “bridge” for political parties but played down the meeting with Surya.