Bagus BT Saragih, Jakarta – The electability of Golkar Party presidential candidate Aburizal Bakrie remains below 10 percent and is very unlikely to improve before next year's election, according to the latest opinion poll.
A survey conducted by the Political Climatology Institute (LKP) found that regular appearances on his own media outlets hadn't made Aburizal more electable in the eyes of voters.
The LKP has conducted five-monthly electability surveys on Aburizal. On its first run in November 2012, or about four months after Golkar officially announced its decision to nominate Aburizal as its presidential candidate, only 7.1 percent of respondents said they would vote for the media magnate.
Following massive advertisement placements on national stations TV One and ANTV, which are both partly Bakrie family-owned, Aburizal's electability rose to 10.6 percent in March 2013, according to LKP's survey.
In July and November, however, Aburizal's electability dropped to 9.5 percent and 9.2 percent respectively.
"Aburizal's running mate must be at least as electable as Jokowi if Golkar wants to see their candidate have a good chance in the 2014 presidential race," LKP researcher Usman Rachman said.
Aburizal ranked far lower than Jakarta Governor Joko "Jokowi" Widodo and Great Indonesia Movement (Gerindra) Party presidential hopeful Lt. Gen. (ret.) Prabowo Subianto.
Aburizal has utilized his media outlets to promote himself but it has appeared that the advertisements have had a minimal effect on voters, Usman said.
The LKP survey also indicated that support for Aburizal's presidential bid was flagging among members of his own party. He was indeed still the most popular presidential candidate from Golkar, but the popularity of other party leaders had continued to rise.
LKP's survey showed that 19.6 percent of Golkar members preferred Aburizal, followed by former party chairman and former vice president Jusuf Kalla with 15.2 percent, House of Representatives deputy speaker Priyo Budi Santoso (13.9 percent) and party patron Akbar Tanjung (7.9 percent).
The survey, which Usman claimed to be independent, involved 1,070 respondents in all 34 provinces in the country who were surveyed between Nov. 1 and Nov. 10. The survey consisted of direct interview questions, with a margin of error of around 3 percent at the level of confidence of about 95 percent.
Last month, a survey conducted by Alvara showed that Aburizal ranked highest among the most popular presidential candidates, despite his low electability.
According to the survey, Aburizal was the most popular likely presidential candidate with 78.4 percent popularity rating, followed by Jokowi with 76 percent and Prabowo with 66.3 percent.
But when the survey respondents were asked, "Which candidate will you vote for?", 25.9 percent of respondents said they would vote for Jokowi, followed by Prabowo with 9.2 percent and Aburizal with only 7.6 percent.