A public opinion poll has found that President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo was deemed the most credible replacement for Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) chairwoman Megawati Soekarnoputri.

In the survey, 26 percent of 1,220 respondents supported the idea of Jokowi becoming PDI-P'€™s next chairman, while Megawati'€™s daughter Puan Maharani, who is now the Coordinating Human Development and Culture minister, only won support from 18 percent of the respondents.

Megawati herself only garnered support from 16 percent of the respondents, the survey found.

The survey was conducted by the Cyrus Network between Dec. 1 and Dec. 7. The respondents were from 122 villages in 33 provinces.

'€œOf the respondents who voted for the PDI-P in the last election, Jokowi remains on top with 28 percent. Megawati came second with 23 percent, followed by Puan who only got 17 percent,'€ Cyrus researcher Hasan Nasbi told a press conference on Monday.

Cyrus conducted the survey to assess the people'€™s preferences for future political party leaders. Subjects of the study were the PDI-P, the Golkar Party, the Democratic Party and the Gerindra Party.

The respondents'€™ preference for Jokowi to become the PDI-P chairman indicated the survey'€™s general conclusion that the public wanted fresh faces to lead political parties in the country, Hasan said.

'€œGenerally, 80 percent of the respondents said they wanted political parties to be led by figures aged between 41 and 60 years old,'€ he said.

In the cases of the Democratic Party and Gerindra, however, the charisma of the current chairmen, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Prabowo Subianto respectively, have prevented younger politicians from taking over the party leadership positions.

Former president Yudhoyono and losing presidential candidate Prabowo topped the lists of the most preferred figures to lead Democratic Party and Gerindra for the next five years.

Yudhoyono got support from 37.7 percent of respondents, while his son Edhie '€œIbas'€ Baskoro Yudhoyono won support from 20.8 percent of the respondents. Former House of Representatives speaker Marzuki Alie came third with 14 percent.

If Yudhoyono decided to leave the party, Ibas would likely replace his father, according to the survey. He garnered support from 33.8 percent of respondents if Yudhoyono was taken out of the equation.

Marzuki came in third with 22.7 percent and East Java governor Soekarwo fourth with 17.1 percent.

'€œIbas was popular because of his status as the [former] president'€™s son while Marzuki was widely known as House speaker. The popularity of the two was also augmented by the media, although not always in a positive light,'€ Hasan said.

As for Prabowo, 49.3 percent of respondents said he deserves to be Gerindra chairman for another five years. House deputy speaker and Gerindra deputy chairman Fadli Zon came second with 13.8 percent, while party secretary-general Ahmad Muzani came third with 8.1 percent.

Fadli came in as the strongest candidate to replace Prabowo, according to the survey. He won support from by 28.3 percent of respondents, followed by lawmaker Edhi Prabowo with 13.8 percent and lawmaker Ahmad Muzani with 13.7.

As for Golkar, which has experienced a schism, two men compete for party leadership.

The survey shows that, if Aburizal Bakrie was not mentioned in the survey, Agung Laksono came out as the most preferred chairman with support from 37.4 percent of respondents.

If Aburizal was included in the competition, however, he was still on top with 26.4 percent of votes while Agung came second with 25.5 percent.

Jokowi has often expressed his disdain for leading a political party.

'€œJokowi has no interest to be PDI-P chairman,'€ PDI-P lawmaker Eva Kusuma Sundari said. '€œHe won'€™t violate his own commitment.'€

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