Update Indonesia Elections 2014: Half of Electorate Still Unsure Who to Back
According to a survey from the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), 45.8 percent of the Indonesian electorate have still not decided which party or which presidential candidate to back in the legislative election (9 April 2014) and presidential election (9 July 2014). About 42.4 percent of the electorate knows who they will vote for, while 11.8 percent could not answer. These indications are based on a survey that involved interviews with 1,200 people in 33 provinces between 7-17 March 2014 (with a 2.83 percent margin of error).
That - based on the survey - about half of the Indonesian electorate has still not decided who to vote for implies that the outcome of the legislative as well as presidential race are far from clear, despite the nomination of Joko Widodo (the highly popular Governor of Jakarta) as the PDI-P's presidential candidate. This means that political parties can still win much votes through the political campaigns that are currently running.
According to the CSIS survey, the most popular political parties are the PDI-P (20.1 percent), Golkar (15.8 percent) and Gerindra (11.3 percent). The party of incumbent president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono - Partai Demokrat (PD) - slid to 5.8 percent due to several corruption cases that emerged within the party's ranks in recent years. Possibly the most influential factor for supporting a party or presidential candidate is the 'corruption factor'. As Indonesian politics have for long been characterized by corruption, the electorate wants a leader who has a clean corruption record. This is one of the reasons why Joko Widodo has acquired such popularity among the Indonesian people as opposed to Aburizal Bakrie (presidential candidate of Golkar) and Prabowo Subianto (presidential candidate of Gerindra).
Further Reading:
• PDI-P, Golkar and Gerindra are Most Popular Political Parties in Indonesia
• Can Joko Widodo Accelerate the Democratization Process in Indonesia?
• The Jokowi Effect: Indonesia's Financial Markets Gain on Political Certainty
• Indonesia’s 2014 Presidential Candidates; a Profile of Aburizal Bakrie
• Towards Indonesia's Presidential Elections: a Profile of Prabowo Subianto
• The Tough Road of Yudhoyono's Democratic Party towards the 2014 Elections