Potential voters in the upcoming July 9 presidential election would likely choose a candidate linked to the parties of their regional leaders, a survey shows.
The survey, which was conducted by the United Data Center, shows that mayors and governors represent political parties strongholds and potential voters in certain areas would be more likely to back either presidential figures Prabowo Subianto or Joko “Jokowi” Widodo based on party preferences.
United Data Center researcher Agus Herta explained to reporters on Tuesday the general difference between Jokowi’s and Prabowo’s electability as reflected in the survey results.
According to him, the survey result shows that Jokowi’s electability decreased to 32.2 percent while Prabowo’s electability increased to 26.5 percent, only 5.7 percent difference.
“The competition will heat up similar to a grand prix race until the last day of the campaign period,” he added.
The survey involved 2,688 respondents all head of families of middle class economic background in Medan, Jakarta, Bandung, Semarang, Surabaya, Balikpapan and Makassar, from May 26 to June 1.
Of the seven cities, Prabowo and his running mate, Hatta Rajasa, dominated in Medan and Bandung at the time period. Meanwhile, Jokowi and his running mate, Jusuf Kalla, dominated in Semarang, Balikpapan, and Makassar.
Another United Data Center researcher Daniel Rembeth said that Bandung Mayor Ridwan Kamil of the Gerindra Party was the reason the survey showed that Prabowo would win in Bandung.
He said that, for the similar reason, Jokowi would win in Semarang because the city is led by Mayor Hendrar Prihadi of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P).
“Regional heads represent the political sentiments of the voters in particular areas,” he said.
The electability competition is tighter in Jakarta and Surabaya. According to Daniel, this is due to the more critical urban populations in those cities.
He added that the surveyor chose the random sampling method for the survey in the seven major cities.
A lecturer from the Paramadina University, Abdul Rohim Ghozali, commented that: “Unfortunately the survey was taken before the recent presidential debate”.
He pointed out that the surveyor, United Data Center, had been founded by Didiek J. Rachbini, a lecturer and a National Mandate Party (PAN) member. PAN is currently part of the Gerindra-led coalition backing Prabowo.
Abdul, a lecturer from the University of Paramadina, which is led by Anies Baswedan who is currently managing the campaign for Jokowi, said that the Prabowo-Hatta appeared to be more philosophical, while the Jokowi-Kalla appeared to be more populist in the June 9 broadcast of the first presidential debate.
Source/Fuente: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/06/10/party-affiliation-regional...
