While neither of the two presidential tickets in Indonesia have yet to do anything substantial to highlight women's issues in their campaigns, a new survey has shown that the majority of women have nonetheless decided that they are going to vote for incumbent President Joko Widodo and his running mate Ma'ruf Amin in April's election.
A survey released by pollster Y-Publica yesterday showed that, consistent with most polls that have been released so far, Jokowi-Ma'ruf holds a commanding lead over their challengers, Prabowo Subianto and his running mate Sandiaga Uno, among general voters, scoring 53.5 percent to 31.9 percent.
The 20-plus point lead was also reflected among female respondents, 54.5 percent of whom picked Jokowi-Ma'ruf compared to Prabowo-Sandiaga's 31.6 percent. In addition, when asked which of the tickets women voters thought was more concerned about women's issues, 50.7 percent picked Jokowi-Ma'ruf while 30.2 percent picked Prabowo-Sandiaga.
Y-Publica noted that both tickets had their own catchily named slogans to describe their platforms on women's issues – Ibu Bangsa (Mother Nation) by Jokowi-Ma'ruf and, for Prabowo-Sandiaga, The Power of Emak-Emak (a phrase used jokingly in Indonesia to refer to the power of mothers, or more generally any strong-willed middle-aged ladies, who just don't give a shit and won't put up with any shit either). But their platforms have been largely ignored as women are more concerned about real issues concerning women's rights and the economy.
"60.7 percent of women who were aware of [the programs] didn't feel like their aspirations were being represented," Y-Publica Executive Director Rudi Hartono said at a press conference, as quoted by Tribun.
It's not all positive for Jokowi-Ma'ruf in Y-Publica's survey, however, as they say Prabowo-Sandiaga's numbers have more potential to rise while Jokowi-Ma'ruf's are likely to remain stagnant.
Y-Publica interviewed 1,200 randomly selected participants in this survey from December 26, 2018 to January 8, 2019. The survey has a margin of error of +/- 2.98 percent and a 95 percent confidence level.
Out of the 192 million people registered to vote in April, female voters slightly outnumber male voters, 96.557 million to 96.271 million.