Jakarta. A poll by leading media group Kompas found that Central Java Governor Ganjar Pranowo is the most preferable presidential contender for those who voted for the National Democratic Party (Nasdem) rather than the party’s own nominee Anies Baswedan.

Nasdem officially declared the former Jakarta governor as its presidential hopeful during a party gathering earlier this month.

The poll released on Wednesday indicates that Anies is the least desirable candidate among three leading figures who also include Ganjar and Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto. But Anies saw his popularity surge over the past few months.

“For respondents who identify themselves as Nasdem voters, Anies Baswedan is the third-most voted with 15.4 percent of votes,” Kompas researcher Yohan Wahyu said.

“On the other hand, Ganjar Pranowo got 26.9 percent of the votes and Prabowo received 17.3 percent,”

The survey was conducted from September 24 - October 7 involving 1,200 Nasdem respondents in all 34 provinces, Kompas said.

It has a margin of error of 2.8 percentage points plus or minus. 

At the national level, Ganjar, an Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) politician, is also the poll leader with 23.2 percent of the votes, up by 1.1 percentage points from the same survey conducted in June.

Anies meanwhile enjoys the most enormous surge in popularity from 12.6 percent to 16.5 percent, according to the survey.

Prabowo, the chairman of the Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra), is the worst-performing contender in the survey, with support for him falling by 7.7 percentage points to 17.6 percent. 

The latest results show that for the first time in the Kompas poll, Ganjar outperforms Prabowo.