TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - A recent survey conducted by pollster Populi Center revealed that Sandiaga Uno would be the people’s choice of vice presidential candidate if the general election was held in current day. The former deputy governor of Jakarta received 16.6 percent of respondents’ votes.

Populi Center’s researcher and deputy executive director, Rafif Imawan, explained that Sandiaga was the most popular vice presidential candidate chosen by respondents.

“This is quite interesting for Sandi, a person who had contested in 2019 and his image has been formed,” Rafif said in a virtual discussion on Sunday, April 24.

Other public officials with high ratings after Sandi were Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan (8.6 percent), Erick Thohir (5.8 percent), Ridwan Kamil (5 percent), and Ganjar Pranowo (5 percent). Other names under 5 percent were Agus Harimurti Yudhoyono (3.8 percent), Prabowo Subianto (3.7 percent), and Basuki Tjahaja Purnama (3.6 percent).

However, Rafif added that Sandiaga Uno and Anies also had the high potential to run as presidential candidates in the 2024 Presidential Election apart from Prabowo Subianto and Ganjar Pranowo.

Other figures obtained the percentage below 3 percent included Tri Rismaharini (2.9 percent), Puan Maharani (2.1 percent), Khofifah Indar Parawansa (2.1 percent), Joko Widodo (1.8 percent), Abdul Somad (1.6 percent), Mahfud Md (1.4 percent), and Rizieq Shihab (1.0 percent). There were also some figures with votes below 1 percent.

“29.1 percent of the respondents fall into the no-answer category,” Rafif added.

Conducted via a face-to-face interview on March 21-29, the survey involved 1,200 respondents across 34 provinces in Indonesia who were selected by using a multistage random sampling method. Populi claimed its survey's margin of error was approximately 2.83 percent with the confidence level of 95 percent.

Populi Center also examined public voices regarding the discourse on postponing the election and extending the presidential term. As a result, the majority of people reject both issues. Nevertheless, public perception of President Jokowi's administration remained quite positive.

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MOH. KHORY ALFARIZI