Survey Says Joko Will Win 72 Percent Of Governor Vote

Markus Junianto Sihaloho

Survey results released on Friday showed that Solo Mayor Joko Widodo will win next Thursday’s election for Jakarta governor by landslide.

Joko won the support of 72 percent of respondents to become the next governor, while incumbent Fauzi Bowo received only 28 percent, according to a survey conducted by the Indonesia Network Elections Survey. The firm questioned 10,000 people throughout the capital from Aug. 28 to Sept. 9.

Sutisna Tri Sasono, executive director of INES, said the results indicate that Jakarta residents deeply distrust the current leadership.

The survey is the firm’s first since Joko topped the first round of the election in July.

The public has been skeptical of polling to forecast winners because prior to the first election round, surveys wrongly predicted Fauzi to win. Actual results showed that Joko won 43 percent of the vote while Fauzi garnered 34 percent.

Sutisna said he was confident the results of his survey were valid and defended the methods used.

“We surveyed 10,000 people in 82 urban wards across Jakarta, with a margin of error of 2.5 percent,” Sutisna said. “The people who took the surveys and recorded the results are well-trained and met directly with the respondents.”

Budi Purnomo Karjodihardjo, a communications coordinator for Joko’s campaign, welcomed the survey result, saying that it showed that the people of Jakarta want a new leader.

Meanwhile, election watchdogs have raised the alarm over the high potential for campaign and electoral violations ahead of next week’s runoff ballot.

Yustrifiadi, the national coordinator of the People’s Voter Education Network, said on Thursday that voters need to watch out for several problem areas that if not monitored could undermine the legitimacy of the election.

He said the main problem was the voter list, which was the source of much controversy and debate during the first round of voting.

Prior to the first-round vote, five of the six candidates lodged complaints about the high number of ineligible or nonexistent “ghost” voters in the list issued by the Jakarta General Elections Commission (KPU Jakarta).

The complaints pointed out that the figure of seven million eligible voters was inconsistent with the Home Affairs Ministry’s announcement that it would issue just 5.6 million electronic identity cards (e-KPD) for the capital.

Electoral authorities claimed the discrepancy was due to a clerical error in data entry.

Survey Says Joko Will Win 72 Percent Of Governor Vote

Survey results released on Friday showed that Solo Mayor Joko Widodo
will win next Thursday’s election for Jakarta governor by landslide.

Joko
won the support of 72 percent of respondents to become the next
governor, while incumbent Fauzi Bowo received only 28 percent, according
to a survey conducted by the Indonesia Network Elections Survey. The
firm questioned 10,000 people throughout the capital from Aug. 28 to
Sept. 9.

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