Senior Golkar Party politician Ridwan Kamil said on Tuesday that candidates’ performances during the official presidential debates sanctioned by the General Elections Commission (KPU) have little effect on swaying voters' preferences.

The former West Java governor, who is now a member of presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto's campaign team said that voters already had their candidates of preference and presidential debates statistically did not contribute much to their popularity.

"After presidential debates, statistically voters' preferences don't change much," Ridwan said, as quoted by Antara.

During the inaugural KPU-sponsored presidential debate on Tuesday evening, Ridwan could be seen huddling with other aides of Prabowo advising him on his performance on stage.

The three presidential hopefuls faced off in the first election debate on Tuesday, with Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) presidential candidate Ganjar Pranowo and opposition candidate Anies Baswedan slamming Prabowo for his decision to pick President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo's eldest son Gibran Rakabuming Raka to join his ticket.

Responding to the question, Prabowo appeared to allude to possible judicial interference, telling his fellow candidate Ganjar; "We’re no longer children, the public is smart, the public knows, Ganjar. We know the process, who did the intervention, but the point is we need to enforce the Constitution."

An independent poll published on Dec. 10 showed 45.6 percent of voters would choose Prabowo, up from 35.9 percent in October.

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