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Nahdlatul Ulama, non-Muslim voters held ‘key role’ in Jokowi’s win
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President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo (center, right) attends the 73th anniversary celebration of Muslimat NU, the women’s wing of Nahdlatul Ulama, in Jakarta.
(Antara/Wahyu Putro A)
T
he country’s largest Muslim organization, Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), and non-Muslim communities played a crucial role in helping President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo and Vice President Ma’ruf Amin win the April 17 presidential election, analysts have said.
“One of the keys for Jokowi’s and Ma’ruf’s win was the non-Muslim factor – 97 percent of non-Muslim citizens voted for Jokowi,” Indikator Politik Indonesia researcher Burhanuddin Muhtadi said during a discussion on Friday, quoting the results of an exit poll conducted by the pollster.
However, Burhanuddin said it was the NU’s role in getting Muslims to vote that was crucial in Jokowi’s reelection as, by appointing Ma’ruf, an NU leader, as his running mate, Jokowi had essentially cemented a permanent pact with the organization.
“Of all the Muslim constituents who voted for Jokowi and Ma’ruf, most of them were related to the NU.”
Votes among NU members were evenly distributed between Jokowi and challenger Prabowo Subianto in their face-off in the presidential election five years ago, but during their rematch this year, most NU members voted for Jokowi, with the margin sitting at 12 percent, Burhanuddin said.
“From a statistics point of view, the NU is a powerful weapon for Jokowi-Ma’ruf and anyone competing in an election,” Burhanuddin said.
A recent Indikator survey found that Muslim voters as a whole slightly favored Prabowo and his running mate Sandiaga Uno as they were estimated to secure about 51.4 percent of the vote, while Jokowi-Ma’ruf were estimated to get 48.5 percent.
