April 23, 2024
JAKARTA – Jakarta-based pollster Indikator Politik Indonesia has found in its latest public opinion survey that the job approval rating for outgoing President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has reached an all-time high of more than 77 percent.
Jokowi got a slight bump in his latest job approval rating from 76 percent in February to 77.2 percent when the survey was conducted in early April, Indikator Politik Indonesia director Burhanuddin Muhtadi said on Sunday.
Indikator polled around 1,200 respondents of voting age nationwide from April 4 to 5 for the latest survey. The results of the survey had a 2.9 percent margin of error, with a 95 percent confidence level.
“The biggest reason why many people believe the President is doing a good job is his provision of social aid. That figure is 31.4 percent [of respondents],” Burhanuddin said, as quoted by Antara.
Some 20.6 percent of respondent said that they were satisfied with Jokowi’s performance because he improved many forms of infrastructure across the archipelago.
Of all respondents, 22 percent disapproved of his performance, citing increasing food prices, rampant corruption, unequal distribution of social aid and lack of leadership as the main reasons behind their dissatisfaction.
Social aid controversy
This year, the government earmarked Rp 496.8 trillion (US$30 million) for social aid, a figure surpassing the allocations for the past few years and nearly on par with the record Rp 498 trillion worth of social aid distributed in 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Massive spending on social aid and subsidies led to a sharp increase in the budget deficit projection this year, from 2.3 percent of GDP initially stated in the state budget plan to 2.8 percent.
Social aid distribution ahead of the Feb. 14 presidential election had also been at the center of two cases filed with the Constitutional Court by losing candidates Anies Baswedan and Ganjar Pranowo. Anies and Ganjar challenged the victory of Prabowo Subianto, whose running mate Gibran Rakabuming Raka is Jokowi’s son.
But the court on Monday upheld Prabowo’s win, rejecting the claims by his two rivals that Jokowi had used state resources, including social aid, to sway voters in favor of the Prabowo-Gibran pair as part of his attempt to maintain his grip on power after leaving office later this year.
Same findings
Indikator’s findings were generally consistent with results from other public opinion polls conducted in recent weeks.
A survey released last week by Lembaga Survey Indonesia (LSI) found Jokowi’s approval rating slightly increasing by one percentage point in April.
“About a month after the election, some 76.2 percent of respondents said they were satisfied with Jokowi’s performance in office, while 23 percent said otherwise,” said LSI director Djayadi Hanan on Thursday.
The LSI’s figures from late February and early February were 75 percent.
Djayadi Hanan said, “This showed the approval rating tended to be stable”.
Of all respondents who approved of the President, 20.1 percent cited the government’s infrastructure work as the main reason behind their support, while 19.9 percent said it was simply because they saw Jokowi performing well and 19.5 percent cited the government’s social aid program.
“These features, including the social aid which at the time was in the spotlight at the Constitutional Court, were generally similar with the reasons that respondents cited in previous surveys,” Djayadi added.
Those who did not approve of Jokowi cited uneven distribution of social aid and high prices of staple foods as two main reasons behind their dissatisfaction with the President.
The LSI interviewed by phone some 1,200 people of voting age nationwide from April 7-9, about a week after the Constitutional Court’s first hearing of election disputes challenging the landslide victory of Prabowo and Gibran. The results of the survey had a 2.9 percent margin of error with a 95 percent confidence level.
A recent survey conducted by the Indonesian Circle Survey from late December 2023 to early January 2024 found that 78 percent of respondents were satisfied with the performance of the President. (nal/ipa/yer)