The neverending coverage about Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama’s alleged blasphemy and the protests over them has completely altered the dynamics of the 2017 Jakarta gubernatorial election, with several polls showing Ahok having lost his previously high electability ratings (even though recent polls show people are still very satisfied with his work as governor).
In more bad news for Ahok, the latest poll, which comes to us from Lingkaran Survei Indonesia (LSI), says that 60.3% of Jakartans want a new governor.
According to LSI head Denny Januar Ali, while some respondents said they wanted a change because they were dissatisfied with various aspects of Jakarta, Ahok’s ongoing legal problems was a major factor behind many respondents saying they wanted a new leader for the capital. Regardless of whether they were pro or anti Ahok, 68.5% said their lives had been disrupted in some way due to Ahok’s blasphemy case. Similarly, 65% of respondents said they are not willing to be led by a governor who has been named a suspect in a criminal case.
“Ahok has now been named a suspect. Ahok’s suspect status has become a psychological barriers to the public reelecting him,” said LSI researcher Adjie Alfaraby at a press conference announcing the survey results today as quoted by Detik.
Out of the 60.3% that said they wanted a new governor, 47.6% said they would vote for candidate pair Agus Yudhoyono Harimurti and Sylviana Murni while 34.8% would choose Anies Baswedan and Sandiaga Uno.
In a matchup between all three candidate pairs, the survey found that Agus-Sylviana remain in the lead with 33.6% while Ahok-Djarot are in second with 27.1% and Anies-Sandiaga in third with 23.6%.
There was one small sign of hope for Ahok’s political future in LSI’s data – his electibility rating in this survey was significantly up from LSI’s last survey, which was done in early November, in which he polled at a mere 10.6%.
The new LSI survey was conducted doing face-to-face interview with 440 respondents from December 1-6 (so immediately before and after the massive anti-Ahok protest on December 2). According to LSI, respondents were selected using multistage random sampling method and the survey’s margin of error was +/- 4.8%.
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