Joko remains most popular candidate for Indonesia's next president

By The Jakarta Post correspondent

The results of a poll by the Pusat Data Bersatu — United Data Center or PDB — announced here on Thursday shows Joko Widodo remained secure at the top of the electability list of potential presidential candidates.

PDB founder Didik Rachbini told a press briefing Joko was clear with 36 percent of the those polled choosing the incumbent Jakarta governor.

Coming second was Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra) founder Prabowo Subianto with 6.6 percent while in third place is State-Owned Enterprises Minister Dahlan Iskan with 5 percent.

Placing fourth and fifth were former Vice President Jusuf Kalla and former military chief Wiranto, with 4.6 and 4 percent of the votes respectively.

He said the survey also showed that the names put forward for the Democratic Party’s convention to select its presidential candidate had failed to strike a note with voters polled.

“It is difficult for the participants of the convention to catch up with Jokowi or the other potential candidates,” Didik said, referring to the Jakarta governor by his popular name.

“The Democratic Party candidates scored poorly.”

The survey showed many members or supporters of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) had clearly shifted their favor to Joko, evidenced by the 2 percent vote obtained by PDI-P chairperson Megawati Sukarnoputri.

Joko is a PDI-P member.

“It looks like PDI-P voters are going towards Jokowi and want Megawati to just be a kingmaker,” Didik said.

The results of the survey, he added, also showed Prabowo was losing ground, saying that while his electability not long ago was not far behind Joko’s, latest numbers showed him to be trailing the governor by some distance.

The results of the electability survey, conducted by telephone on Sept. 21-24 and asking 500 people in 10 large Indonesian cities, showed that among those taking part in the Democrats’ convention, Dahlan Iskan topped the list with 71.2 percent of the vote in terms of electability and 48.4 percent of the votes in terms of popularity.

Marzuki Alie came second with 61.8 percent in electability and 24.8 percent in popularity and third was Pramono Edhie Wibowo, brother in law of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, with 39.4 percent and 12.6 percent.

Placing fourth and fifth were Anis Baswedan with 39.2 percent and 18.8 percent, and Trade Minister Gita Wirjawan with 35 percent and 11 percent.

The Jakarta Post is Indonesia's main English newspaper