Indonesian hopeful pairing Prabowo-Hatta has great chance to win election

A prominent pollster agency Indonesia Survey Circle (LSI) learned that president hopeful nominated by Great Indonesia Movement (Gerindra) Party, Prabowo Subianto, may win the presidential election as their electability rate may surpass the pairing's rival pairing as election schedule draws near.

"With remaining undecided voters at 8 percent, Prabowo-Hatta may surpass the electability of Jokowi-JK. As of now Jokowi-JK pairing still leads the electability rate," Fitri Hari, an LSI researcher told a press conference in his office here on Monday, referring to the acronym of Joko Widodo-Jusuf Kalla pairing nominated by coalition of Indonesia Democratic Party of Struggle ( PDI-P).

Rivalry of two pairings to run in July 9 presidential election was the first in Indonesia's democracy era after 1999. The ex- military general Prabowo took former key economy minister Hatta Radjasa as his sidekick to run in the election. Meanwhile, Joko Widodo the capital city governor chose seasoned politician and former vice president Jusuf Kalla as his running mate.

The LSI network learned that electability rate of Prabowo Subianto and Hatta Radjasa has been growing from September last year to July this year, narrowing their gap with Jokowi-JK which at the same time gained decreasing electability.

Fitri said that Prabowo-Hatta initially saw the electability gap at 39.2 percent with their rival pairing that gained 50.3 percent in September last year. Later on, Prabowo-Hatta pairing managed to narrow the gaps into 24.2 percent in March and 12.67 percent in early May.

According to results of LSI's last survey carried out early this month, the head-to-head electability rate of Jokowi-JK and Prabowo-Hatta stood at 47.8 percent to 44.2 percent. LSI saw widening electability gap between the two contenders with Jokowi- JK pairing at leading position.

Results of surveys carried out by other pollster agencies showed that Prabowo-Hatta pairing has led the rivalry with higher electability rate compared to Jokowi-JK's.

Part of Indonesians staying in foreign countries have cast their ballots. Citing to results of exit poll count, reports said that Prabowo-Hatta pairing gained more votes compared to Jokowi-JK. The latter pairing was only won in ballot stations in China and Saudi Arabia. Prabowo Hatta won in China's Taiwan, Malaysia, Japan, Yemen and Singapore with landslide votes.