With less than a week until voting day, K-pop fans turned Anies supporters across the country are holding events like this one at a cafe in Jakarta, where they recite lyrics of their favorite hits while trading mugs and memorabilia that feature the candidate's face.

They say they recongize parallels in the way he promotes himself.

"It all started from a TikTok live that Anies did one day. He went live after an event, and it happened to be inside a car. Most K-pop idols, after performing in music shows, like the K-pop show Music Bank, they do similar livestreams in that sort of format."

"In K-pop culture, when idols have their birthdays or when their group is on comeback, we throw small celebrations like this in cafes. It's the same concept - we have photocards and merchandise."

They call their meetup 'Humanies'-- that's what diehard Anies fans call themselves now, though the organizers say they aren't affiliated with his campaign.

"Papa" Anies, as many of his fans affectionately call him, has in no way promoted or suggested the influence of K-pop during his campaign.

The campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

The former Jakarta governor has pledged to address what he calls an erosion of democratic values, which has helped bump him into second place, according to some surveys.

Most polls however have Anies neck-and-neck with the ruling party candidate, and well behind the frontrunner Prabowo Subianto.

The nation's 205 million voters head to the voting booth next week to decide who will lead the world's third-largest democracy and most populous Muslim-majority nation.