Prabowo-Hatta, Jokowi-JK Gaining Balanced Support: Sigma

Jakarta (Antara) - The Prabowo Subianto-Hatta Rajasa and the Joko Widodo-Jusuf Kalla (Jokowi-JK) presidential candidate pairs are still gaining balanced public support, noted a survey institute director. "I see that the support for the Prabowo camp tends to increase. The same thing is also happening with the Jokowi team," Said Salahuddin, the director of the People's Synergy for Indonesian Democracy (Sigma) institute, stated here on Thursday. Increasing support for the two presidential candidate pairs may come from swing voters. After entering the campaign period, particularly after the first round of the presidential debate recently, voters who were still doubtful about their choice, began to make up their mind regarding who they intend to elect. Earlier, based on a survey poll conducted by the National Survey Institute (LSN), the electability of the Jokowi-JK pair began to dip as compared to that of the Prabowo-Hatta duo, particularly in comparison with what it was before the legislative elections on April 9, 2014. When asked by the LSN, 46.3 percent of respondents said they will vote for the Prabowo-Hatta pair while only 38.8 percent of the respondents said they will choose the Jokowi-JK team. About 14.9 percent of the respondents did not give any answers. He said that the survey was conducted on June 1-8, 2014 in 34 provinces. Currently, there are two presidential and vice presidential candidate pairs, Joko Widodo-Jusuf Kalla and the Prabowo-Hatta Rajasa, who will contest in the upcoming July 9 presidential election. The Joko Widodo-Jusuf Kalla duo is supported by the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP), the National Democrat Party (Nasdem), the National Awakening Party (PKB), and the People's Conscience Party (Hanura) with 207 seats or 36.96 percent of the House of Representatives' (DPR's) 560 seats. The Prabowo-Hatta duo is supported by the Greater Indonesia Movement (Gerindra), the Golkar Party, the National Mandate Party (PAN), the Prosperous Justice Party, the United Development Party (PPP), and the Crescent and Star Party (PBB) with 292 seats or 52.14 percent in the parliament. Prabowo Subianto is a retired military general and the chairman of Gerindra Party, while his running mate, Hatta Rajasa, is a former coordinating minister for economic affairs and the chairman of PAN. Jokowi is Jakarta's governor and a PDIP cadre, and his running mate, Jusuf Kalla, is a former vice president and a senior politician of the Golkar Party. (*) EDITED BY INE