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n what could be perceived as a surprising result in the Jakarta gubernatorial election, challengers Anies Baswedan and running mate Sandiaga Uno won the race with a significant margin against incumbent Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama and his deputy Djarot Saiful Hidayat.

A quick count carried out by Kompas showed that Anies garnered 58 percent of the vote, while the incumbent trailed with 42 percent.

Other pollsters, such as the Indonesian Survey Institute (LSI), the Saiful Mujani Research and Consulting (SMRC) and Polmark, produced similar results, with votes gained by Ahok hovering between 42 and 44 percent.

A few days prior to the runoff election, pollsters predicted that a whisker would separate the two contenders.

“Apparently, the Jakarta election provides an anomaly. Although most Jakartans are satisfied with their [incumbent’s] performance, this doesn’t necessarily mean that they will cast their votes for him,” spokesperson to the incumbent pair, Bestari Barus, told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.

Before being accused of blasphemy, for commenting on a verse in the Quran in September last year, several surveys showed that Ahok’s approval rating exceeded 70 percent.

While his rivals enjoyed roaming in the capital to convince their constituencies, Ahok was forced to stand in court to defend himself and campaign for his reelection bid at the same time.

“There are many elements that influenced the mind set of [Jakarta] voters, including the blasphemy case. Ahok has done great things for the city, but ultimately, it is the people who decide,” Bestari added.

The result was also beyond the expectation of Anies’s camp, who targeted to garner between 51 to 55 percent of the vote prior to the voting day, the campaign team’s spokesperson Herrie Marjanto told the Post.

“We intensified our approach. We went door-to-door even before the cooling-off period,” he said, explaining their strategy to lure the city’s lower-class voters.

“To reach the middle-and upper classes, we fully utilized our social media accounts to promote our OK-OCE and educations programs,” he went on saying, referring to Anies-Sandiaga’s One Kecamatan One Center for Entrepreneurship program that aims to empower young, small business owners.

While his rivals went all out, Ahok faced a series of disturbances from people who claimed to be local residents during his campaign.

Their rejection of him prompted the outspoken Ahok to turn more passive and launch a center called Rumah Lembang to receive residents who wish to lodge reports and complaints about city-related matters.

In another decisive moment several days before voting day, both camps reported each other to the city’s Elections Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) for alleged vote buying by distributing staple foods, or sembako, to residents.

Although they repeatedly denied the accusations, some analysts believed the issue had influenced voters to cast their ballots against the incumbent pair, who are popular among middle-to high class Jakartans as “clean,” corrupt-free politicians.

“It’s an electoral blunder. They [Ahok’s camp] wanted to gain votes from Anies supporters, but apparently the sembako issue worked against them and was considered a vote buying tactic,” said Denny Januar Ali of Indonesian Survey Circle (LSI).