The crucial votes for speaker and deputy speaker were rushed through amid rowdy scenes in the early hours of Thursday in the same session in which the new house was sworn in.

The move confirms that, despite his vacillating in recent days, outgoing President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's Democrat Party remains loyal to Mr Prabowo's six-party "Red and White" coalition, giving it 63 per cent of the 560 house seats.

Golkar Party treasurer Setya Novanto was elected as the house speaker. He has been questioned as a witness in  several corruption cases involving rigged local government elections and a corrupted sports stadium contract. He has not been named a suspect.

Mr Setya's four deputy speakers are also from the coalition parties, among them Mr Prabowo's right-hand man and spokesman, Fadli Zon.

The crucial head of committee positions have not yet been selected but are also expected to be taken by the majority coalition, including the heads of the budget and legislative committees and the ethics council.

Committee heads are disproportionately powerful in the Indonesian Parliament because most decisions are the result of closed door deal-making in that forum before they are rubber-stamped by the Parliament.

"I thought the presidential election was the end of the oligarchs but, in fact, it was premature to say that," Centre for Strategic and International Studies political analyst Philips Vermonte said. "Recent developments show that they are consolidating."

Mr Joko's budget, key appointments, including judges, and the passage of government legislation requires parliamentary votes. The Parliament also has the power to impeach the president.

Mr Joko's party, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), and its head, Megawati Sukarnoputri, have the largest single number of seats in the new Parliament – 109 out of 560 – but have failed to use them to secure a better outcome. Their four-party coalition controls 207 seats.

In the past, the house speaker position has automatically gone to the largest party. However, changes to parliamentary procedures that were pushed through by the coalition in July allowed the majority to elect the speaker.

Dr Yudhoyono's support has been the decisive factor. A walk-out by his Democrat Party members last week allowed a controversial law to be passed in the dying days of the old Parliament, abolishing direct elections for Indonesia's three lower levels of government.

But Dr Yudhoyono blamed Ms Megawati, saying she refused to meet him because of a grudge she held against him for beating her in the 2004 election.

"I have been wanting to meet her for so long, for 10 years now," Dr Yudhoyono said. "I have also sought to see her in the past few months . . . [but] God hasn't allowed it to happen."

The country's Electoral Commission on Wednesday refused permission for the Parliament to swear in five MPs because they are under investigation for corruption. Three are from Mr Joko's party, PDI-P; one is from Golkar and one from the Democrats: Dr Yudhoyono's former energy minister Jero Wacik.