Jokowi-Kalla most popular: Survey

JAKARTA. Jakarta Governor Joko “Jokowi” Widodo of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and former vice president Jusuf Kalla of Golkar topped the list of presidential tickets for the 2014 election, Jakarta-based pollster Charta Politika has found in its survey.

The poll showed that if an election were held today, a Jokowi-Kalla ticket would garner 47.7 percent of the vote, leaving the ticket of Great Indonesia Movement (Gerindra) Party’s Lt. Gen. (ret.) Prabowo Subianto and the National Mandate Party’s (PAN) Hatta Rajasa behind on 14.2 percent of the vote.

The survey, which interviewed 1,200 respondents in 33 provinces from Nov. 28 to Dec. 6 also revealed that Jokowi, with any potential vice presidential candidate, would top the list.

A Jokowi-Hatta ticket, for example, would garner 44.6 percent of the vote, while a Jokowi-Pramono Edhie Wibowo, of the Democratic Party (PD), pairing would get 41.2 percent.

“This obviously tells us that any vice presidential candidate will do as long as the presidential candidate is Pak Jokowi,” Charta Politika executive director Yunarto Wijaya said on Monday.

Yunarto said that Jokowi had gained support from voters of various backgrounds of age, education and gender, and across party lines.

The survey, however, produced a completely different result if Jokowi was nominated as a vice presidential candidate instead.

According to the study, a Megawati-Jokowi ticket would top the list but with only 23.3 percent of the vote, ahead of a Prabowo-Hatta ticket with 21.4 percent of the vote. Meanwhile, a Pramono Edhie-Jokowi ticket would lose to the pairing of Prabowo and Anis Matta of the Islam-based Prosperous Justice Party (PKS).

“It appears that supporters of Jokowi will not be happy if he is nominated as a vice presidential, rather than presidential, candidate,” Yunarto said. (Margareth S. Aritonang)