Jakarta – The results of the latest LSI Denny JA survey show that support for the number 02 ticket in the 2019 presidential elections – Prabowo Subianto and running mate Sandiaga Uno – has increased among voters who want Indonesia to become like the Middle East or Saudi Arabia.
This was revealed by LSI Denny JA researcher JA Ardian Sopa at a presentation of the survey results yesterday in East Jakarta.
Based on the survey which was conducted on February 18-25 in 34 provinces, Sopa said that over a period of six months support for the Prabowo-Sandi ticket was higher in the segment of Muslim voters whose political orientation believes that Indonesia should be like the Middle East or Saudi Arabia, namely 54.1 percent.
This compares with a previous survey in August 2018 when Muslim voters supporting Prabowo who wanted Indonesia to be like Saudi Arabia stood at only 39.6 percent.
Meanwhile for the number 01 campaign ticket of incumbent President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo and vice presidential candidate Ma’ruf Amin, support from Muslim voters who believe that Indonesia should be like the Middle East or Saudi Arabia stood at 45.9 percent.
Sopa said that support for the Widodo-Amin ticket over the last six months has remained stable at 57.2 percent among Muslim voters who believe that Indonesia should continue to adhere to the state ideology of Pancasila. But the figure has declined for the segment that believes that Indonesia should be like the Middle East.
For the Prabowo camp meanwhile, support from voters who believe Indonesia should stick with Pancasila stood at 33.4 percent.
Sopa also explained that in terms of perceptions on the relationship between Islam and politics, support for the Prabowo-Sandi ticket has increased, particularly among Muslim voters who believe religion and politics should be separate.
Meanwhile support for the Widodo-Amin ticket has increased among Muslim voters who believe that religion and politics should be a single unit and cannot be separated.
“[In terms of] the perception of Islam and politics, over the last six months, support for Jokowi-Amin has increased particularly among Muslim voters who believe religion and politics are a single unit, and cannot be separated. With regard to support for Prabowo-Sandi, the principle rise has been among Muslim voters who believe that religion must be separated from politics”, explained Sopa.
However when looking at those with a political orientation that believe Indonesia should be like the West, the Widodo-Amin tick is ahead with 58.3 percent compared with Prabowo-Sandi at 33.3 percent.
The survey titled Shifts in the Religious Sentiment after 6 Months of Campaigning, was conducted on February 18-25 and involved 1,200 respondents in 34 provinces using a multi-stage random sampling method.
Overall, after six months of campaigning for the 2019 presidential elections, LSI Denny JA found that the Widodo-Amin ticket is still ahead of Prabowo-Sandiaga by double digits and this gap is widening. Moreover the Widodo-Amin ticket’s lead among Muslim voters is even higher again among minority voters.
“If the presidential election was held today, then Joko Widodo-Ma’ruf Amin (Jokowi-Amin) would become the president and vice president in 2019-2024. This is because the support garnered by Jokowi-Amin is as high as 58.7%. Far ahead of support for the Prabowo Subianto-Sandiaga Salahudin Uno (Prabowo-Sandi) ticket which stands at 30.9%. Voters who declared that they did not want to reveal their preference, are undecided, do not know or did not answer stood at 9.9%” read the Denny JA release on the 2019 presidential elections. (sas/kid)
[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was “LSI: Prabowo Unggul di Pemilih yang Ingin Indonesia bak Arab”.]
