Jakarta – A survey conducted by Saiful Mujani Research and Consluting (SMRC) says that President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) would win if the presidential election were to be held today. SMRC Executive Director Djayadi Hanan said that Jokowi's electability rating is way above other candidates.
"There are no other names yet who gets a significant support," he said yesterday in a press conference at SMRC office in Jakarta.
The survey says that Jokowi's electability rating stands at 38.9 percent, followed by Gerindra chairman Prabowo Subianto with 10.5 percent, Democrat Party chairman Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono with 1.4 percent, former National Armed Forces (TNI) chief Gatot Nurmantyo with 0.8 percent and Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan with 0.5 percent.
The poll was conducted on December 7-13 involving 1,220 respondents via face-to-face interview. It had 3.1 percent margin of error.
Jokowi's electability rating continues to rise. In January 2017, the figure stood at 27 percent. It rose to 34.1 percent in May and remained at 38.9 percent since September.
In the same period, Prabowo's electability rating was at 9.9 percent. It increased to 17.2 percent in May and 12 percent in September and currently stands at 10.5 percent.
Jokowi's high electability score relates to his approval rating that stands at 65 percent.
His electability increases when respondents had two candidate choices. If pit against Prabowo only, Jokowi's got 64.1 percent electability rating and Prabowo garnered 27.1 percent.
Gerindra deputy chairman Ferry Juliantono said SMRC survey on the electability rating of Jokowi and Prabowo was invalid.
– Ahmad Faiz Ibnu Sani