Datalyst Indonesia, which conducted the polling from February to May on Twitter, said 76 percent of 3.5 million tweets surveyed on Jakarta's politics - or 2.6 million - mentioned Ahok.

The figure was way higher than other contenders including lawyer and former law and human rights minister Yusril Ihza Mahendra, which was second with 10 percent tweets, followed by singer Ahmad Dhani with only 5 percent.

"This shows how popular Ahok is online," said Datalyst researcher Ami Ramadiah.

However, not all the tweets were in praise of Ahok. The pollster said that of the 2.6 million tweets regarding Ahok, only 57 percent were positive, while the rest were negative.

Datalyst said there were three main issues that contributed to the generally positive image of Ahok: his bid to run as an independent candidate for next year's election, political party support and his policy of clearing the Kalijodo red-light district. His stance on the projects to reclaim land off North Jakarta's coast is also seen in a positive light.

Meanwhile, regular floods in the capital and eviction issues have all sullied his image. 

Ami said data from social media could be used to predict the views of Jakartans about local politics in the capital because social media penetration in the city was very high. (yan)

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