A new survey showed on Thursday (02/11) that most voters in West Java prefer Ridwan Kamil to become the province’s next governor and would like to see incumbent President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo remain in office for a second term.
The survey, conducted by Jakarta-based pollster Saiful Mujani Research and Consulting from the end of September to early October, questioned 820 respondents, most of whom said they would vote for now-Bandung Mayor Ridwan in West Java’s gubernatorial election next year. Deddy Mizwar, the province’s current vice governor, received the second-highest number of potential votes.
However, Ridwan’s popularity rating — shown at 77 percent in the survey — still trails behind that of some of his competitors, like Desi Ratnasari and Dede Yusuf, both of whom have 87 percent popularity ratings.
Dede previously served as deputy governor in West Java until 2013, while Desi is making a run for governor with the support of the National Mandate Party (PAN).
The pollster believes that whoever wins the 2018 West Java gubernatorial elections will have a significant influence on the following year’s presidential election.
West Java is home to about 18 percent of registered voters in Indonesia, the largest chunk out of any of the country’s 34 provinces.
The survey also showed Jokowi pulling ahead of Prabowo Subianto — Jokowi’s main competitor for the 2019 race — in West Java, securing 25.7 percent of the vote in the province. Prabowo is expected to garner around 22 percent of the vote.
Most gubernatorial candidate supporters in the province also favor Jokowi over Prabowo, the survey showed, with the exception of Dedi’s base, who will more likely turnout to support Prabowo.
