Kaleidoscope 2017: Jokowi vs Prabowo and the Important VP Seat

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Indonesia`s Presidential Election is still a year away but the competitive nature of the figures involved in it could be felt throughout 2017.

Several pollsters surveyed the candidates who are predicted to run for the presidency in the 2019 election. The results show that the current President Joko Widodo or Jokowi has a much higher electability compared to his closest rival, Gerindra Party Chairman Prabowo Subianto, who also ran for the presidency in 2014.

According to Director of Indo Barometer Muhammad Qodari, Jokowi’s popularity and high electability sparked concern for the political parties that plan on facing him in the upcoming election. From numerous political parties, Gerindra has the highest chance to compete against Jokowi through its candidate Prabowo Subianto.

Read: Jokowi Above Prabowo in Pollmark Survey

The most sensitive matter according to Qodari is the discussion regarding who will take Jokowi’s side as the vice president. “The vice president post has a variety of candidates,” he said.

Executive Director of Voxpol Center Pangi Syarwi Chaniago reasons that despite the two most prominent presidential candidates, he believes that there is a third axis formed by political parties that don’t endorse the two.

“There are only three possibilities, if the third axis intends to run for president, the candidate must be the antithesis compared to Jokowi and Prabowo,” he said on Sunday, December 24.

Pangi said that the support pattern was visible since the ratification of the Election Law that agreed on a 20 percent Presidential threshold. But whoever Jokowi or Prabowo chooses to sit in the VP post, it is deemed important for them to pick someone that would complete them. “If Jokowi is a national-secular, then his VP should be a national-religious.”

TEMPO TEAM