For Teddy, 57, the forced eviction he experienced in Kampung Akuarium, also known as Pasar Ikan, in North Jakarta, in April last year was unforgettable and changed the course of his family’s life for the worse.

The evictees in Pasar Ikan believe that incumbent Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama is responsible for their misery because he was the one who ordered the forced evictions.

Asked if any Pasar Ikan evictees will vote Ahok in the Feb. 15 election, Teddy shook his head and said, “He will not get a single vote from us.”

Pasar Ikan residents say that in the 2012 Jakarta gubernatorial election, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, then campaigning for the position of governor, and his running mate Ahok won an overwhelming majority of votes there. Jokowi-Ahok signed a political contract with the residents promising them several things including upgrading the on-site slum, a process labelled geser bukan gusur, meaning “move a little, not forced evictions.”

In the geser bukan gusur scheme, residents would agree to move a few meters away from the river to make way for the inspection road.

For Pasar Ikan residents, the forced evictions have changed their feelings about Ahok completely. Teddy, who has four children and is now unemployed, said he had planned to send his children to university using the money he had gradually saved up over the years. However, the eviction destroyed his dream.

The city administration evicted 596 families in the poor fishermen’s neighborhood in April last year to clear the area of what Ahok called illegal squatters and a hotbed of tuberculosis.

Jono, who like Teddy still remains in the evicted neighborhood, said relocation was not an option for him and many of the residents who worked around Pasar Ikan. He said he once checked out an apartment in Marunda but later decided to come back and live in a makeshift shack because the apartment was too far away from Pasar Ikan where he works as a boat porter.

Since the eviction, the community of Pasar Ikan has been one of the most organized in its animosity toward Ahok.

When The Jakarta Post visited the area on Wednesday, Anies Baswedan banners, the rival of Ahok in the Jakarta gubernatorial election, and the flag of the Gerindra Party, were everywhere to be seen.

Teddy said Anies had visited the area during a recent campaign stop and personally met with residents along with Gerindra Party chairman Prabowo Subianto.

Teddy said, however, that residents did not expect much from a politician like Anies, noting that they had already been betrayed by politicians in the past.

“If a political contract is betrayed, how can we trust a [mere] promise,” Teddy said.

In 2012, Jokowi-Ahok also made a contract with Bukit Duri residents in South Jakarta. One of the points was geser bukan gusur. In 2012, Jokowi and Ahok also won a majority of votes in Bukit Duri.

In September 2016, however, Ahok ordered the forced eviction of residents in the area and told them to move to apartments in Rawa Bebek.

Bukit Duri residents have pinned their hopes on candidates other than Ahok and they met with Anies in early January. During the meeting, the residents gave Anies a list of “10 aspirations,” which included halting the forced evictions.

Besides Anies, rival Agus Harimurti Yudhoyono has also taken a different stance from Ahok in regards to forced evictions. He has tried to woo voters with promises that he will not evict them. He also used the term geser bukan gusur while campaigning in the area.

Ahok’s camp, on the other hand, has campaigned on continuing to develop the city.

Ahok and his supporters have mocked Anies and Agus, saying that they are all talk and that it is impossible to develop the city without forced evictions.

On social media, memes mocking Agus’ geser bukan gusur proposal are circulating with Ahok’s supporters calling it a “ridiculous theory.”