Survey finds Golkar is popular, Aburizal not so much

Bagus BT Saragih, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | National | Sun, October 21 2012, 10:05 PM

A recent survey by the Political Weather Station (PWS) has put the Golkar Party, the nation’s second-biggest political party based on legislative seats, on the top of its list of most popular parties.

According the study, Golkar’s electability stood at 19.71 percent, higher than Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle’s (PDI-P) 16.72 percent and Great Indonesia Movement (Gerindra) Party’s 10.84 percent.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s Democratic Party, the ruling party, came in fourth with electability ratings of only 6.91 percent, only slightly higher than the 6.07 percent of the newly established Nasdem Party.

The electability of Golkar’s chairman Aburizal Bakrie, who has also been nominated as the party’s presidential candidate for the 2014 election, however, was overshadowed by another veteran politician.

Aburizal’s electability, which stood at 16.35 percent according to the survey, came in behind his predecessor as party chairman and former Vice President Jusuf Kalla who stood at 22.14 percent.

Golkar deputy secretary-general Lalu Mara Satria Wangsa downplayed the survey’s results.

“Other surveys showed that the trend of Aburizal’s electability is on the rise. Positive growth is more important than high but stagnant [figures],” he said.

The study interviewed 1,070 respondents in all 33 provinces between Sept. 15 and Oct. 15 with a 3 percent of margin of error.