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Bobby leads in North Sumatra gubernatorial race
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North Sumatra gubernatorial candidate pairs Edy Rahmayadi-Hasan Basri Sagala (left) and Bobby Nasution-Surya (right) show their ballot numbers on Sept. 23, 2024, during a public plenary meeting of the North Sumatra General Elections Commission (KPU) in Medan, North Sumatra. (Antara/Yudi Manar)
Medan, North Sumatra Mayor Bobby Nasution, the son-in-law of former president Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, has a strong lead in the province’s upcoming gubernatorial election with 44.9 percent of respondents saying they support his ticket, a survey by Litbang Kompas has found.
Litbang Kompas, a research and development unit of Kompas newspaper, interviewed 800 respondents of voting age across the province in person from Oct. 22 to 28 with a margin of error of 3.46 percent.
Former North Sumatra governor Edy Rahmayadi, Bobby’s only competitor in the race, received support from 28 percent respondents, while 27.1 percent said they were undecided.
“Looking at the numbers, we can say that Bobby is doing better than Edy,” said Litbang Kompas Senior Researcher Yohan Wahyu, as quoted by Kompas on Tuesday.
Bobby and his running mate Asahan regent Surya have the support of 10 parties in the race, including the Gerindra Party, the Golkar Party, the Democratic Party and the National Mandate Party (PAN), all members of Onward Indonesia Coalition (KIM). KIM supported President Prabowo Subianto in the February presidential election.
Edy and his running mate Hasan Basri Sagala are backed by six parties that have seats on the North Sumatra regional council (DPRD), including the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and the Hanura Party.
Bobby ran in the Medan mayoral election in 2020 on the PDI-P’s ticket and won. He was dismissed from the party in November 2023 after he declared his support for then-presidential candidate Prabowo and his running mate Gibran Rakabuming Raka, who is Bobby’s brother-in-law.
