SP/Robertus Wardi – Joko Widodo may only have been sworn in as governor of Jakarta last October, but a new survey suggests he could aim even higher next year.
A poll by the United Data Center (PDB), conducted from Jan. 3-18 with 1,200 respondents in 30 provinces, found that Joko was the figure most people wanted to see as president in the 2014 election.
The pollsters presented respondents with a list of 33 potential candidates, which Joko topped with 21.2 percent of votes. In second place was Prabowo Subianto, the retired Army general who has topped most polls to date, with 17.1 percent.
In third was Megawati Sukarnoputri, a former president, with 11.5 percent, followed by Rhoma Irama, a dangdut singer turned conservative cleric, with 10.4 percent. In fifth was Aburizal Bakrie, the chairman of the Golkar Party, with 9.7 percent, followed by his party predecessor, Jusuf Kalla, with 7.1 percent. Joko also topped the PDB's poll of most popular vice presidential candidates.
Didik J. Rachbini, the head of the PDB, said that Joko and Rhoma could really shake up the presidential race if they ran.
"They're both newcomers [to the political scene], yet they're already livening up the presidential race," he said. "What's really surprising is that Joko turned out to be more popular than all the established figures we've seen so far."
He said that because of Joko's appeal and popularity, his party, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), should seriously consider nominating him as its presidential candidate rather than Megawati, the PDI-P chairwoman.
"The choice for them is either to stick with Megawati or to acknowledge the popular demand and go with Joko. If necessary, the party should carry out a survey of its own and compare it to our findings," Didik said. "But their survey shouldn't be aimed just at pleasing Megawati."
The PDB survey also showed that Golkar and the PDI-P were the most popular parties, polling at 14 percent each. The ruling Democratic Party, which won 20.8 percent of votes in the 2009 election, polled just 9.9 percent, consistent with several surveys over the past six months suggesting that it would fail to break double digits in the next election.
Prabowo's Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra) was fourth in the poll with 8.7 percent, followed by the National Awakening Party (PKB) with 6.7 percent and the National Democratic Party (NasDem), which will be contesting its maiden election next year, with 5.5 percent.
Of all the potential presidential candidates, only Aburizal has announced he will run for the country's highest office. However, he faces doubts from within his own party because of his consistently low polling numbers, with most surveys showing him to be less popular than Jusuf Kalla, the former vice president.
The message from the PDI-P is mixed, with some officials insisting that Megawati is the logical choice, and others, including her husband, Taufik Kiemas, calling for a younger candidate to be nominated.
With President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono unable to seek a third term, the Democrats have been left without a clear figurehead for 2014, and have suggested they might go with an outsider.
Among those linked to the party are Prabowo, who needs the support of a major party to be nominated, as well as more fringe officials such as Dahlan Iskan, the minister of state-owned enterprises, and Mahfud M.D., the chief justice of the Constitutional Court.
Rhoma, meanwhile, is pursuing the nomination of the PKB, and insists that he has "a calling" to run for president. "I'm being compelled to run by the people and clerics, which makes this a calling from God," he said last month.