Jokowi, Top Candidate for President: CSIS Survey

Jakarta (Antara) - Jakarta governor Joko Widodo (Jokowi) has been the top choice for president of respondents surveyed by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in November. "A total of 34,7 percent of respondents have chosen Jokowi," head of CSIS' Politics and International Relations Department, Phillips J. Vermonte, said in an exposition of "CSIS National Survey in November: Signs of End of Political Elite Oligarchy" here on Sunday. CSIS carried out the survey through direct face-to-face interviews with 1180 respondents in 33 provinces from November 13 to 20 with a margin of error of 2.85 percent. Other figures selected for president by the respondents are Prabowo Subianto (10.7 percent), Aburizal Bakrie (9 percent), Wiranto (4.6 percent), Jusuf Kalla (3.7 percent), Megawati Soekarnoputri (3.3 percent), Mahfud MD (1.8 percent) and Hatta Rajasa (0.6 percent). A total of 22.8 percent of respondents meanwhile said they still had no idea of who they would choose for the country's next president in 2014. "This survey also found that support for Jokowi has become more consolidated covering not only voters from his Indonesia Democratic Party Struggle (PDIP) but also other parties," Phillips said. Jokowi's biggest supporters are indeed from PDIP reaching 63.6 percent, followed by Democrat Party (42.7 percent), Golkar Party (22.7 percent) and Gerindra (20.6 percent). "The finding showed that support from outside political oligarchy and dynasty is wider. In view of that political parties must open themselves up and internally reduce oligarchy and dynasty," Phillis said. (*)