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Jakartans don't care about Ahok's race and religion, survey says
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People fill in forms to support Jakarta Governor Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama at the Teman Ahok secretariat in Graha Pejaten, South Jakarta, on March 21. Teman Ahok, or Friends of Ahok, opened the post to gather copies of citizens' identity cards for Ahok, who will run as an independent candidate in the 2017 Jakarta Gubernatorial Election. (Antara/Reno Esnir)
T
he chance of Jakarta Governor Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama staying on in the capital's top post next year might be open wide as Jakartans are most likely to choose him despite his minority status and outspoken personality, according to a recent poll.
The survey indicates Jakarta's voters are more mature and discount the two things often used to attack Ahok as issues: the fact he is Christian and of Chinese descent.
In the survey conducted by Charta Politica with 400 respondents from March 15 to 20 after Ahok announced Heru Budi Hartono as his running mate, the head of the city’s Financial Asset Management Board (BPKAD), the respondents did not even dispute Ahok's outspoken and often rude comments, tempo.co reported on Thursday.
Ahok's electability ranked at 44.5 percent, according to the survey released on Wednesday. The number far exceeded that of his rival, former Justice and Human Rights Miniser Yusril Ihza Mahendra, whose electability stood at 7.8 percent.
Other people who had declared their intentions to run as candidates in the 2017 race, such as businessman Sandiaga Uno, former Youth and Sports Minister Adhyaksa Dault also raked in small amounts in the survey.
"Ahok received benefits from the disobedience of political party members," Charta Politica executive director Yunarto Wijaya said as quoted by tempo.co.
Ahok had announced that he and Heru would run as independent candidates without political party backing. The move was applauded by many, but also denounced by political parties that called Ahok's move an attempt to weaken the role of political parties in Indonesian democracy.
Two small parties, NasDem and the People's Conscience Party (Hanura), had announced their support for Ahok and Heru for next year's Jakarta election.
Moreover, the survey also showed that most Jakartan members of the ruling Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) would probably vote for Ahok.
Kompas.com reported that out of 400 respondents, PDI-P voters represented the most at 19.3 percent. Of those, 67.5 percent said they would vote for Ahok to be Jakarta governor for the next term.
The PDI-P had not yet announced its official support for any candidate for next year's election. Charta Politica saw there was a big chance that the PDI-P would support Ahok because despite the refusal of several members, there has been no word yet from the chief patron of the party, Megawati Sukarnoputri.
"Megawati had not yet made any comments. There is a possibility that the PDI-P would support Ahok in the Jakarta election," he said as quoted by kompas.com.
