After winning the 2014 presidential election on a wave of populist and grassroots support, Joko Widodo faced numerous political challenges which severely hurt his popularity within his first six months in office.
But since then, President Jokowi’s renewed focus on domestic issues (with the occasional nationalist stand on international issues like the death penalty and the South China Seas) seems to have helped him regain the people’s favor, with a new survey showing that he would easily be voted back into office if the next presidential election were held today.
The survey, conducted by Saiful Mujani Research and Consulting (SMRC), showed that 32.4% of respondents would choose Jokowi as president today in a matchup against potential opponents.
Coming in second place in the survey’s theoretical contest is the man that Jokowi beat in the last election, Prabowo Subianto, who was chosen by 9.4% of respondents.
The other potential candidates who were chosen by a significant percentage of survey takers included former president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (2.6%) MNC Group CEO Hary Tanoesoedibjo (1.9%) and Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama (1.4%). None of the other figures mentioned in the survey were chosen by more than 1% of respondents.
SMRC director Sirojudin Abbas said Jokowi’s high electability rating was due to the generally high level of satisfaction amongst Indonesians in his performance. According to his group’s research, about 67% of Indonesians are currently satisfied with Jokowi’s performance, up starkly from 41% one year ago.
SMRC’s survey was conducted from June 22 to 28. The respondents consisted of 1,220 randomly selected individuals, giving the results a 3.1% margin of error.
