Population Survey: PDIP Best Electability Eri Cahyadi-Armuji Superior MA-Mujiaman

SURABAYA - A Populi Center survey shows that the pair of candidates for the mayor and deputy mayor of Surabaya, Eri Cahyadi-Armuji, outperformed the Machfud Arifin-Mujiaman pair in the Surabaya regional elections.

"In terms of popularity, Pak Machfud Arifin is superior, but his electability is still less than that of Mr. Eri Cahyadi," said Populi Center researcher Hartanto Rosojati when releasing the results of the election survey in Surabaya as quoted by Antara, Friday, October 30.

The Populi Center conducted a survey from 6 to 13 October 2020 with 800 respondents who were randomly selected stratified (multistage random sampling). The margin of error in this survey is 4.0 percent with a confidence level of 95 percent.

Hartanto detailed a number of findings from the survey results. First, Machfud Arifin is the most widely known name with a percentage of 74.0 percent, followed by Eri Cahyadi with 68.8 percent, Armuji with 55.0 percent, and Mujiaman Sukirno with 50.2 percent.

Second, Eri Cahyadi's name is superior for the acceptability category as a person who is able to bring improvement, a person who is liked, often appears on social media, best understands problems in the city of Surabaya, and is considered the most capable of dealing with COVID-19.

Third, in terms of candidate electability, Eri Cahyadi-Armuji is the pair most elected as mayor and deputy mayor of Surabaya in the coming period with 41.0 percent, ahead of Machfud Arifin-Mujiaman Sukirno with a percentage of 37.7 percent. As for those who did not answer, 21.3 percent.

As for the level of participation, 80.7 percent said they would use their voting rights, 14.2 percent answered that they still considered the development situation of COVID-19 and 23 percent said they did not come to the polling station.

"This shows that the enthusiasm and level of participation of residents of the City of Surabaya is quite high," he said.

Populi Center researcher Jefri Adriansyah added that the number obtained by candidate pair number 1 Eri-Armuji was very convincing compared to his opponent Machfud Arifin-Mujiaman. This is because the appearance of the Eri-Armudji candidate pair is very short compared to Machfud Arifin-Mujiaman who appeared long ago.

"I am quite surprised because Eri-Armuji's vote can match Pak Machfud, who since January has carried out the line forward for the Surabaya Pilkada. The number of parties that have supported Pak Machfud has not had a significant effect," he said.

The high number of voters who are attracted to Eri-Armuji, said Jefri, is because the public is eager to elect candidates with bureaucratic backgrounds, reaching 21.2 percent. Then followed by 13.2 percent of academics and 12.8 percent of politicians.

"When viewed from the preferences of these public voters, it is not surprising that Eri-Armuji is superior. Because Mas Eri and Pak Armuji's backgrounds are included in the top three that the public wants. Bu Risma's success, who has a bureaucratic background, will have an effect on voters for this election. Mas Eri has a bureaucratic background, "he said.

The Surabaya Pilkada was followed by the Mayor and Deputy Mayor of Surabaya, Eri Cahyadi and Armuji. The candidate pair number 1 was carried by the PDI Perjuangan and supported by PSI. In addition, they also received additional strength from six non-parliamentary political parties, namely the Bulan Bintang Party (PBB), the Hanura Party, the Berkarya Party, PKPI, and the Garuda Party.

Meanwhile, Machfud Arifin-Mujiaman pair number 2 was carried by a coalition of eight parties, namely PKB, PPP, PAN, Golkar, Gerindra, PKS, Democrat, and Nasdem Party and supported by a non-parliamentary party, namely the Perindo Party.