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Religious sentiment drives Anies to top place in survey
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Saiful Mujani Research and Consulting founder Saiful Mujani presents his organization’s survey results in Jakarta on Dec. 8, 2016. (JP/Margareth S. Aritonang)
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recent survey held by Saiful Mujani Research and Consulting (SMRC) puts Anies Baswedan in a strong position to win the Jakarta gubernatorial election runoff, with a sizable portion of the respondents saying they would vote for Anies because he is a Muslim.
The survey found that Anies garnered 47.9 percent votes while incumbent Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama, a Christian and a Chinese-Indonesian, stood at 46.9 percent. The survey noted that 5.2 percent of voters remain undecided.
“However, the gap between them is too narrow, so we cannot said that Anies is leading,” SMRC researcher Deni Irfani said on Wednesday.
According to the survey, 32.4 percent of Anies’ voter base cite “similar religion” as the reason they would vote for him.
(Read also: More surveys on Jakarta race released with inconsistent results)
Meanwhile, “proven track record” is considered the strongest factor boosting Ahok chances of reelection, with 41 percent of his voters mentioning this as the main reason they expected the incumbent governor to retain his position.
The result, however, shows a positive trend for Ahok’s camp.
“The largest margin or gap was recorded in December. At that time, Ahok stood at 31.7 percent and Anies stood at 43.9 percent,” Deni said.
