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Jokowi steadily leading
Dance for No
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Dance for No. 2: Supporters of presidential candidate Joko âJokowiâ Widodo, who is number two on the ballot paper, cheer as a singer performs during a campaign rally in Jakarta on Thursday. The presidential election will be held on July 9. (AP/Tatan Syuflana) (AP/Tatan Syuflana)
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span class="inline inline-none">Dance for No. 2: Supporters of presidential candidate Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo, who is number two on the ballot paper, cheer as a singer performs during a campaign rally in Jakarta on Thursday. The presidential election will be held on July 9. (AP/Tatan Syuflana)
Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo is still firmly in the lead against rival presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto, and the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P)-led coalition is working at full speed to ensure Jokowi maintains his position amid 'a tsunami of smear campaigns' against the candidate and his running mate Jusuf Kalla.
In addition to increasing collaboration between party elites and volunteers, the PDI-P-led coalition has specifically intensified grassroots movements to reach out to eligible Muslim voters across the archipelago, particularly in West Java, which is known to be a stronghold of the Islamic-based Prosperous Justice Party (PKS).
Puan Maharani, who leads the PDI-P coalition's election team, acknowledged that Jokowi was facing stagnant electability due to extensive malicious campaigns questioning Jokowi's faith as well as his ethnicity.
'Pak Jokowi's racial and religious backgrounds are clear. He is Javanese and a Muslim. However, if he was not, so what? Nothing is wrong to support citizens of this country, regardless of [a presidential candidate's] religious and racial background, as long as they have the capability [to lead the country],' said the daughter of PDI-P chairperson Megawati Soekarnoputri.
The PDI-P and its coalition partners have been promoting such perspectives during the coalition's nationwide campaign, in addition to rectifying false information about Jokowi, Puan added.
Separately, a senior leader of the country's largest Muslim organization Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), Khofifah Indar Parawansa, described the smear campaigns against Jokowi as extensive, and said that those who spread such defamatory comments used all possible measures, especially in Java. 'It is like a tsunami,' she said on Thursday, as quoted by tempo.co.
'For instance, it was said that if Jokowi won, fuel prices would be increased 100 percent, as well as fertilizer [prices],' said Khofifah, who is also a former women's empowerment and child protection minister.
Jokowi-Kalla campaign team spokesperson Eva Kusuma Sundari told The Jakarta Post that volunteers have distributed the Obor Rahamatan Lil 'Alamin (A Blessing for all Mankind) tabloid to counter the false information about Jokowi promoted by the notorious Obor Rakyat tabloid, as well as to endorse Islam as a blessing for the universe.
'Our volunteers have also distributed the Laskar Rakyat [People's Troops] tabloid, as well as pamphlets to promote diversity, to educate people about embracing difference,' Eva said on Thursday.
Two recent studies launched separately on Thursday by the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) and the Jakarta-based Indonesian Survey Circle (LSI), showed that the non-active Jakarta governor was still convincingly leading against the former lieutenant general.
According to the LSI, Jokowi's electability stood at 45 percent, while Prabowo's stood at 38.7 percent.
The study by LIPI also showed similar findings.
'Our study shows that the Jokowi-Kalla ticket would win with 43 percent of the vote if the election took place today, leaving the Prabowo-Hatta ticket with 34 percent. The number of undecided voters, however, remains high ['¦] at 23 percent,' said Wawan Ichwanuddin, head of the LIPI survey team.
'Our survey also reveals that voters from within the PDI-P coalition are more loyal compared to [those from] the Gerindra-led coalition, as it showed that 60.4 percent of voters among the PDI-P coalition would vote for the Jokowi-Kalla ticket, while 35 percent of voters from the Gerindra-led coalition said that they would vote for Jokowi,' Wawan added.
Meanwhile, Jokowi reiterated his confidence about the July 9 poll, although his lead against Prabowo is narrowing.
'From what I see, it doesn't look like it [is narrowing]. We'll see,' Jokowi said after a meeting with his volunteer team members in Jakarta on Thursday.
Jokowi acknowledged that his team had prepared a strategy to boost votes on July 9.
'We will do something in the last week ' a surprise,' he said, declining to elaborate on the details.
Hans Nicholas Jong also contributed to this report.
