In the province’s Asahan regency on Wednesday, Jokowi inaugurated two sections of the Trans-Sumatra highway, one connecting two regencies in North Sumatra and one connecting South Sumatra and Jambi.

"These toll roads will help boost regional competitiveness and create new economic growth points both in North Sumatra and Jambi. As the main toll road, the Trans-Sumatra is expected to speed up the mobility of people and goods and facilitate logistics," Jokowi said.

Road projects have been at the center of much of the contention between two governor candidates in North Sumatra: on-leave Medan mayor Bobby and former governor Edy Rahmayadi, who is running on the ticket of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), the former party of both Bobby and Jokowi.

On Thursday, a day after Jokowi returned to Jakarta, Bobby made a campaign stop in Asahan.

“Aren’t you tired of complaining about damaged roads [and] no improvements happening?” Bobby asked the audience during the event, before pledging to focus on fixing infrastructure problems if he was elected.

Since the early days of the race, Bobby and Edy have been trading barbs about their past work and the outgoing President, whose approval ratings remain high in the province.