Jakarta – President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo must pay close attention to his electability in four provinces ahead of the 2019 presidential election, a Jakarta-based pollster has said.
"The critical areas [for Jokowi] are West Java, North Sumatra, West Kalimantan and East Kalimantan," said Saiful Mujani, founder of Saiful-Mujani Research and Consulting (SMRC), during a talk show aired at Kompas TV on Thursday evening.
He said some opposition parties, namely Gerindra, the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) and the National Mandate Party (PAN), were seeing strengthening support from those four provinces, as SMRC quick counts indicate that candidates backed by these parties are likely to win in the June 27 regional elections.
In North Sumatra, for instance, candidates Edy Rahmayadi and Musa Rajekshah, who were backed by the three opposition parties as well as Golkar and NasDem, are predicted to win 58.9 percent of the vote in the province's gubernatorial election.
Meanwhile, in West Java, candidate pair Sudrajat and Ahmad Syaikhu, who were backed by the three opposition parties, are predicted to win 29.6 percent of the vote, making them the second most likely winners out of four pairs contending the province's gubernatorial election.
"I have to be honest that, according to the exit poll data, Jokowi will lose in West Java," said Saiful.
SMRC public policy consultant said the decline in Jokowi's popularity was because opposition parties had successfully proliferated the #GantiPresiden [Change the President] slogan and mobilized an anti-Jokowi campaign. (nor/ebf)