Margareth S. Aritonang, Jakarta – An opinion poll by Jakarta-based think tank the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) has found that the Jakarta governor is the most popular candidate for the 2014 presidential election, beating even the Greater Indonesia Movement (Gerindra) chief patron Lt. Gen. (ret) Prabowo Subianto.
The survey found that if the election was to take place today, Jokowi would get 28.6 percent of the vote, ahead of Prabowo with 15.6 percent. Golkar Party chairman Aburizal Bakrie came third with a mere 7 percent.
The survey found in a head-to-head contest between Jokowi and Prabowo, the Jakarta governor would get 46.6 percent of the votes while Prabowo would only get 22 percent.
In its survey in August 2012, CSIS found Prabowo to be the most popular candidate with 44 percent of the votes in a head-to-head contest against President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who got only 18 percent approval.
The current survey also shows that supporters of Jokowi come from a variety of backgrounds, age, economic status and level of education.
"The survey tells us that the public is yearning for an alternative. Jokowi's success shows it is possible to have such a candidate," Philips J. Vermonte, head of CSIS Department of Politics and International Relations, told a press conference on Sunday.
Philips said alternative candidates for the 2014 presidential election are even more crucial today as majority of the public has no faith in existing political parties.
"It's our job to search for and introduce quality alternative candidates to the public. Their participation in the contest will motivate undecided voters, whose numbers are relatively high," Philips said.
In its current survey, CSIS introduced five popular alternative figures, former finance minister and World Bank managing director Sri Mulyani Indrawati, Paramadina University rector Anies Baswedan, anti-graft activist Teten Masduki, businessman Sandiaga Uno and political activist Fadjroel Rahman.
Sri Mulyani comes out on top as the most popular candidate with 43.5 percent of the votes, followed by Anies with 17.5 percent and Teten with 15.3 percent.
The respondents believe that Sri Mulyani had a prominent role in financial reform during her stint as finance minister. Anies, meanwhile, won praise for his contribution to reforming the education system.
"It will be a challenge to nominate these candidates because it will be difficult to convince political parties to support them," CSIS senior researcher J. Kristiadi said. Kristiadi, however, added that undecided voters could influence the established political parties.
"Existing political parties must be open to this possibility to benefit from the growing number of our undecided voters, who are convinced their participation in the election will make no difference," Kristiadi said.
The CSIS survey found that 28 percent of respondents had not made up their minds about who to vote for in 2014.
For its latest survey, the CSIS interviewed 1,635 people between April 9 and April 16, in 31 provinces, excluding Papua and West Papua.
Other pollsters have come up with similar results. A study by the Pol-Tracking Institute last month, for example, also cited Jokowi as the most popular presidential hopeful due to the negative media coverage of most established political parties.