As Indonesia’s 2019 elections are drawing closer, public opinion surveys about the electability of Jokowi and his challenger Prabowo Subianto are released with increasing frequency. Though there are some differences between the results, virtually all pollsters agree that Jokowi is currently on track to win a second term. Why has Jokowi been able to maintain his lead in the polls so easily? What obstacles has the Prabowo campaign faced so far? And why are there no renegade pollsters who are trying to contravene the consensus for political purposes?

In this week’s Talking Indonesia podcast, Dr Dirk Tomsa discusses these and other questions with Dr Djayadi Hanan, a lecturer in political science at Paramadina University in Jakarta and executive director of Saiful Mujani Research and Consulting (SMRC), one of Indonesia’s leading political research and polling institutes.

In 2019, the Talking Indonesia podcast is co-hosted by Dr Dave McRae from the University of Melbourne’s Asia Institute, Dr Jemma Purdey from Monash University, Dr Charlotte Setijadi from Singapore Management University and Dr Dirk Tomsa from La Trobe University.

Photo credit: Djayadi Hanan/SMRC.