Candidate Ridwan Kamil has lost his early polling lead in the Jakarta gubernatorial race amid struggles to consolidate support from within his electoral alliance, while his biggest rival, Pramono Anung, has now clinched top spot, albeit by a small margin, after seeing his popularity swell among various voter groups.

Ridwan, a Golkar party politician, is contesting the race alongside running mate Suswono of the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), the biggest party in the Jakarta legislature. The pair is backed by political parties in the Onward Indonesia Coalition (KIM) currently supporting President Prabowo Subianto’s administration.

While Ridwan had been by far the most popular Jakarta candidate when all three candidate pairs registered their bids, a recent survey by the research unit of Kompas newspaper found that Pramono, who served as former president Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s two-term cabinet secretary, has now surpassed Ridwan.

The survey, which was conducted from Oct. 20 to 25 and interviewed 800 voting-age respondents, showed that Pramono along with running mate, fellow Indonesian Democratic Party of  Struggle (PDI-P) politician and former Banten governor Rano Karno, had 38.3 percent of voter support.

The Ridwan-Suswono pair came second with 34.6 percent of voter support, while independent pair Dharma Pongrekun and Kun Wardhana garnered only 3.3 percent of voter support. Just under 24 percent of respondents were undecided.

The Jakarta gubernatorial race will go to a second round of voting if no pair wins more than 50 percent of the vote.

Read also: As Ridwan’s polling figures slip, Prabowo signals support

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