Presidential aspirant Prabowo Subianto topped the list on a survey of electable candidates released by the National Survey Institute (LSN) on Tuesday, beating out rivals Aburizal Bakrie, Megawati Sukarnoputri and Wiranto among others.
Prabowo garnered 22.7 percent of the votes from a random survey of 1,230 people interviewed by LSN pollsters in 33 provinces, researcher Gema Nusantara said. The head of the Great Indonesia Movement party (Gerindra), Prabowo has staged a public relations push in the past year, casting himself as a firm-handed populist leader as Indonesia’s 2014 presidential election nears.
Bakrie, the chair of the Golkar Party, came in second with 16.3 percent of the votes. Retired general and Peoples Conscious Party (Hanura) chair Wiranto came in third with 13.2 percent of the votes.
Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) chair and former president Megawati grabbed 13 percent of the vote, while less popular candidates like NasDem founder Surya Paloh, Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Hatta Rajasa and prominent lawyer Yusril Ihza Mahendra all came in with less than 6 percent of the votes.
Despite Prabowo’s popularity, the LSN survey concluded that the presidential race was PDI-P and Golkar’s to lose. Golkar garnered 19.7 percent of the public’s support, while PDI-P grabbed 18.3 percent.
Gerindra totaled 13.9 percent, Hanura 6.9 percent and the Democrats 6.1 percent, according to survey results.
Jakarta Governor Joko Widodo was not included on the list of possible presidential candidates, Gema explained, because he is not in a leadership role with any of Indonesia’s large political parties. Nonetheless, Joko topped the list on a separate question asking poll-takers to rank the best candidates within the PDI-P.
Joko trounced Megawati in popularity, with 68.1 percent of those surveyed preferring his candidacy.
“Those wanting Megawati [in that position] stood at only 14.9 percent,” said Umar S. Bakry, the executive director of the LSN.
The ruling Democratic Party fared poorly in a section ranking parties on corruption, coming in at the bottom of the list alongside the Islamist Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) as one of the most corrupt political parties in Indonesia. Both parties have been rocked by a series of recent corruption scandals involving several high-ranking members.
Hanura and Gerindra ranked as the least corrupt political parties.
Former Vice President Jusuf Kalla, State Enterprise Minister Dahlan Iskan and former Constitutional Court chief Mahfud MD were favored as Democratic Party candidates, should they choose to run with on the party’s ticket.
Neither Jusuf, Dahlan or Mahfud are currently members of the Democratic Party.
The survey, conducted via face-to-face interviews, has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.8 percent.
by: Yeremia Sukoyo
