TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - A researcher at pollster LSI Denny JA, Adjie Alfaraby, said that the hate speech case entangling musician Ahmad Dhani and other similar cases would likely affect Jokowi - Ma’ruf's electability among educated voters.

“This case will affect certain segment, such as educated voters because the group of people does not favor a country that takes a strong act towards critics,” said Adjie in his office, Thursday, February 7.

Moreover, he added, those cases were framed by opposition party as a criminalization or silencing of criticism. “Those are not [considered as] as populism issues for educated people.”

According to the latest survey of LSI Denny JA, the electability of Jokowi - Ma'ruf among the educated voter group was bested by Prabowo - Sandiaga. In January 2019, the incumbent candidate gained 37.7 percent votes, while the opposition earned 44.2 percent.

However, Jokowi - Ma'ruf still beats Prabowo - Sandiaga in the overall performance with 54.8 percent electability for the former and 31 percent for the latter.

The survey was conducted on January 18-25 toward 1,200 respondents across Indonesia with a multistage random sampling and direct interview. The margin of error of the poll was 2.8 percent.

DEWI NURITA