Adisti Sukma Sawitri, Jakarta – Governor candidate Fauzi Bowo topped a poll of eligible Jakarta voters Sunday amid fears of a low turnout on the Aug. 8 election day.

The poll by the Indonesian Survey Institute (LSI) says more than half of the 600 surveyed respondents – all of them registered voters – said they would vote for Fauzi while only 22 percent would give their vote to Adang Daradjatun. Another 22 percent of respondents said they were undecided.

But voter apathy remains high, despite the resounding support for Fauzi in the poll. Based on the results of an earlier poll by the institute, an estimated 65 percent of the 5.7 million voters registered in the city intend not to vote at the election.

The huge coalition of 19 political parties backing Fauzi is perceived to be the main force behind his popularity, in contrast to former police general Adang, whose sole major party backer is the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS).

"People made up their minds right after (Fauzi's) big coalition was settled and have not fallen for the massive ads and ground campaigns done by the opposing team," LSI researcher Anies Baswedan said.

Anies said Adang's campaign had to consolidate its grassroots support in the remaining days before the Aug. 8 poll if it wanted to change the result.

Both candidates have used the official campaign season to run TV and radio advertisements on top of an onslaught of massive street banners coloring the city.

Fauzi has devoted a large part of his campaign message to stressing Jakarta's identity as a pluralistic city, while Adang has taken on the failures of the administration, in which Fauzi is deputy governor.

The Jakarta Elections Commission will hold an official public debate between the two candidates on Aug. 4.

Fauziah Amalia, a bank official, said she looked forward to the debate as an opportunity to decide whether or not she would turn up on election day. "It's the only way to prove which one of them is smarter and wiser. I'll leave the rest of my decision to my mood on the day."

Governor candidate Adang Daradjatun showed up at an event organized by urban poor groups Sunday to sign a political contract focused on empowering the poor.

The chairwoman of the Urban Poor Consortium (UPC), Wardah Hafidz, said Adang promised to not evict the poor from their homes if he won the election. "We will use the contract to remind him of his promises later on if he is chosen as governor," she said.

The media coordinator of Adang's campaign team, Dedi Supriadi, said the signing of the political contract was the culmination of several meetings between the Adang campaign and the UPC. More than 5,000 people from city slums came to witness the signing of the contract, Kompas.com reported.

Wardah said the event was not designed to support any particular candidate, saying Fauzi had turned down the group's invitation.

Fauzi spokesman Lukman said the candidate had prioritized attending campaign rallies over the contract signing. "We are complying with the schedule set by the Jakarta Elections Commission and according to that schedule we had campaign rallies in several locations to attend," he said.