Jakarta Governor Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama is expressing concern that Jakartans will still take religious and race into consideration when voting for a leader for the capital, despite a recent survey that says otherwise.



In response to a survey by Charta Politica published on Wednesday, Ahok said he noted there was anomaly in the results.



The survey, conducted from March 15 to 20 with 400 respondents revealed that Jakartans don't mind Ahok's minority status as a Christian and as an Indonesian of Chinese descent. Respondents' satisfaction level to Ahok soared to 80 percent while his electability stood at 44.5 percent. Something that Ahok found strange was that electability was half of the satisfaction level.



"Usually if people are satisfied with your work, electability would follow, but the results did not [show that] so there might be basic issues or people don't like my style," he told journalists at City Hall on Thursday.



The former East Belitung regent said he had been used to race and religion being used against him. He even recalled people who cited verses from the Koran to urge others not to support him for he is a non-Muslim.



Even though the survey by Charta Politica said that Jakartan voters are more mature and looked more at the performances of the hopefuls rather than at personal backgrounds, Ahok said he still suspected that religion and racial issues would hamper his candidacy.



However, Ahok expressed optimism over fighting political parties in the 2017 Jakarta Gubernatorial Election, being an independent candidate with Heru Budi Hartono, the head of the City's Financial Asset Management Board (BPKAD), as his running mate.



He recalled that when he was running to be deputy governor with Joko "Jokowi" Widodo the pair, supported by the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and the Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra) was able to beat then incumbent Fauzi Bowo, who was backed by big political parties.



"Fauzi Bowo even tried to gather all the parties, but he still lost. It is not about political parties. People are smarter now," Ahok added.



Ahok and Heru had announced that they would run as independent candidates in the 2017 Jakarta Election. Despite being independent, the pair has received support from two parties: Nasdem and the People's Conscience Party (Hanura). (rin)(+)

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