Carlos Paath, Jakarta – The electability of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) soared after it officially named Jakarta Governor Joko Widodo its presidential candidate, a new survey has found.

The survey, released by Australia-based Roy Morgan Research on Wednesday, found that the PDI-P's popularity has significantly increased after the party's chairwoman, Megawati Sukarnoputri, declared she would not contest this year's election and handed over the bid to Joko instead.

"The PDI-P will have the highest number of votes in the legislative election which will be held on April 9," Roy Morgan's director for the Asia and Pacific region Debnath Guharoy said Wednesday. "Before the announcement of Joko's candidacy the party's electability was only 27 percent, but now the figure has risen to 37 percent."

The survey, which counted 2,300 respondents from the 34 provinces in Indonesia, found that above 45 percent of those questioned would vote Joko into office come July.

"It is so obvious that Joko is the most favored candidate to be the president," Guharoy said. Another popular candidate, Prabowo Subianto, the founder of the Great Indonesia Movement (Gerindra) Party was selected by only 15 percent of respondents while Aburizal Bakrie, the chairman and candidate for the Golkar Party, garnered 11 percent.

Wiranto, the presidential hopeful from the People's Conscience Party (Hanura), was only favored by seven percent of respondents. "The long-overdue competition is basically over even before the presidential election has started," Guharoy said.

Source: http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/news/joko-candidacy-lifts-pdi-p-rest-survey/