Jakarta. Poll-leading presidential hopeful Ganjar Pranowo is performing strongly in areas where President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo has won in past elections, while former Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan begins to erode the support for two-time candidate Prabowo Subianto, according to a poll released on Thursday.

The new poll, conducted by Charta Politika Indonesia, indicated that Ganjar remains the most-favorite candidate in a hypothetical race of the three contenders by winning 31.7 percent of support.

Anies trails in second with 23.9 percent of support while Prabowo gets 23 percent. Given the margin of error of plus or minus 2.8 percentage points, the two men statistically tie with each other.

“There is an apparent course toward Ganjar's lead in places where Jokowi has been strong," Charta Politika Executive Director Yunarto Wijaya told a news conference.

"There is also a trend that areas where Prabowo used to dominate are being eroded by Anies."

During the last two presidential elections in the country's most-populous provinces, Jokowi won convincingly in Central Java, East Java, Yogyakarta, and Bali but his lead in the national capital Jakarta was razor-thin. Prabowo beat him in West Java, which has the country's biggest population of more than 50 million people, and Banten.

Yunarto said the outcome of the last election will still be influential in the 2024 presidential race.

“Voters who want continuity regard Ganjar as sharing identical manifestos with the president and therefore he is leading in regions where Jokowi was strong,” Yunarto said.

Jokowi and Ganjar are career politicians with the ruling Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P).

Yunarto added that it's almost certain the three figures are the most qualified candidates for the 2024 presidential elections "when measured by public aspirations".

No other candidate managed to gain a two-digit level of support in the Charta Politika poll. 

West Java Governor Ridwan Kamil led the rest of the pack with 5.8 percent of support, followed by Democratic Party Chairman Agus Harimurti Yudhoyono (2.3 percent), Tourism Minister Sandiaga Uno (2 percent), House of Representatives Speaker Puan Maharani (1.5 percent), East Java Governor Khofifah Indar Parawansa (1.2 percent), State-Owned Enterprise Minister Erick Thohir (1.1 percent), and Golkar Party Chairman Airlangga Hartarto (0.7 percent).

The same survey indicated that the PDI-P will retain victory in the legislative election with 23.5 percent of votes, while Prabowo's Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra) and the Golkar Party will stay in the top three with 13.7 percent and 9 percent of support, respectively.

The poll was conducted by face-to-face interviews with 1,220 respondents from December 8-16, Charta Politika said.