Even PDI-P supporters don’t want Megawati

JAKARTA. A new public opinion survey has found that supporters of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) dislike the idea of party chairman Megawati Soekarnoputri running again for president and would instead prefer Jakarta Governor Joko “Jokowi” Widodo to contest in 2014.

The survey, conducted by the Jakarta-based pollster Pol-Tracking Institute, which was released on Sunday, showed that of respondents who said that they would vote for the PDI-P if an election were held today, 69.25 percent said they would vote for Jokowi.

Only 14.97 percent said they would vote for Megawati, who has led the party since 1999.

In the survey, Pol-Tracking also found that Jokowi is the most popular PDI-P politician among general voters, with 58.37 percent saying that they would vote for him in a presidential election, against Megawati’s 7.16 percent and her daughter Puan Maharani’s 0.59 percent.

“Compared to other potential presidential candidates from the PDI-P, the public would prefer Jokowi, a tendency that we also found among the party’s supporters,” Pol-Tracking executive director Hanta Yuda said.

Pol-Tracking conducted the study from Sept. 13 to Oct. 11 this year, involving 2,010 respondents from the country’s 33 provinces.

Pol-Tracking found that 18.5 percent of respondents in the survey were PDI-P supporters.

Pol-Tracking’s latest finding has further confirmed what other pollsters have found in their surveys: That Jokowi is the candidate to beat in the 2014 presidential election.

Last month, the Jakarta-based think tank, the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), found that Jokowi would top a presidential poll by garnering 34.7 percent of the vote; leaving chief patron of the Great Indonesia Movement (Gerindra) Party, Lt. Gen. (ret.) Prabowo Subianto, in second place with 10.7 percent.

Another public opinion poll conducted by Indikator, which is also based in Jakarta, revealed that Jokowi would get 47.4 percent of the vote if an election were to take place today. Prabowo came in a distant second with 15.8 percent.

Commenting on the survey findings, PDI-P central board member Maruarar Sirait said that Megawati was aware of the fact that Jokowi was more popular than her, but that did not affect their personal relationship.

“Mbak Mega fully understands that she is not as popular as Jokowi, but she has a big heart. On the other hand, Jokowi pays the utmost respect to Mbak Mega,” he said.

Maruarar also believed that Jokowi would not go ahead with his presidential ambitions without Megawati’s blessing.

“We believe that Jokowi will still be loyal to the party regardless of the decision [on the nomination],” Maruarar told reporters.

In spite of the fact that Jokowi is now the most popular candidate for the 2014 presidential election and that his nomination would increase the vote for the PDI-P, the party has yet to decide on his candidacy.

Earlier this month PDI-P deputy secretary-general Hasto Kristianto said that an internal survey of party members revealed that there was a possibility of pairing Megawati with Jokowi in the presidential
election.

The plan has apparently raised concern among several PDI-P executives, including Megawati’s younger brother, Guruh Soekarnoputra, who have called on the PDI-P chair to drop her putative plan to run again for fear it could backfire.

Megawati’s late husband, Taufik Kiemas, had also warned Megawati against running for a third time.

When asked about the PDI-P’s presidential nomination, Megawati peremptorily called on the Indonesian public to wait until April next year, when the country will hold the legislative election.

“Wait until April 9, 2014,” she sharply told reporters when asked about the party’s plans for the presidential election on the sidelines of a ceremony to commemorate Indonesia’s Women’s Day on Sunday. (Margareth S. Aritonang)