Skip to main content

Presidential race may end in a runoff: Survey

Adianto P. Simamora , The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Wed, 07/08/2009 11:08 AM | Presidential Election

The Indonesian Research Institute (LRI) has released a new survey predicting Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Jusuf Kalla will meet face to face in a runoff election.

The LRI president director, Johan Silalahi, said the institute predicted the presidential election would end in a runoff as no candidate would be able to win an outright majority of votes on Wednesday.

"We predict Yudhoyono and Kalla will win more than 30 percent of the votes each while Megawati will take about 20 percent," he told reporters Tuesday.





The prediction was based on the institute's recent national survey and internal poll which analysed tens of thousands of respondents from the 15 most-populated provinces.

The LRI published a series of ads in several newspapers on Tuesday suggesting that the election would be decided in a runoff vote.

The Indonesian Circle Institute (LSI), led by Denny JA, launched a public campaign calling for voters to support the idea of a single-round election to save state funds.

The ads, seemingly beneficial toward Yudhoyono, drew protests from opponents Kalla and Megawati.

Johan said he would close LRI if the election finished in one-round against their predictions.

Johan said although he had a political allegiance with Kalla, his survey was funded by various businesses, not just by Kalla himself. Johan is also the chairman of the Johans Foundation, a strategic consultative company currently financed by Kalla.

"Surveys declaring that the election will be finished in a single round are designed to manipulate public perception. They are not based on facts," said Yudi Latif, chairman of the Institute for National Strategic Interest and Development (INSIDe).

A survey by INSIDe published Monday found that the winning candidate in Wednesday's election could at most only garner 34 percent of the total vote, meaning an election runoff would have to follow.

Predictions made by the Indonesian Survey Institute, based on a survey conducted between June 30 and July 3, found Yudhoyono would win with an overwhelming 63 percent of votes. This survey was funded by Fox Indonesia, a political consultancy firm contracted by Yudhoyono's Democratic Party.

Another survey by the Indonesian Development Monitoring Institute (IDM) conducted from June 1-16 showed that Megawati led the televised debates with support from 44 percent of the 3,700 surveyed respondents. It said that Yudhoyono won 27 percent support and Kalla 26 percent.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

US Stocks Surge to Highest Level of Year on Housing News

By Mil Arcega Washington 24 July 2009 The benchmark Dow Jones industrial average of the top US companies broke the 9,000 point mark Thursday on strong earnings reports and an improving housing picture. Wall Street extended its recent gains Thursday after a new housing report showed sales of previously owned U.S. homes rose at an annual pace of 3.6 percent in June. It was the third straight month of rising home sales. "The markets are reacting to the news today in the context of other things they've been seeing and reading in recent weeks, and that's that the economy does appear to have hit a bottom," said David Resler, chief economist at Nomura Securities. Investors reacted positively to earnings reports from Ford, Ebay, AT&T and higher sales of Apple's new iPhone. Resler says the positive earnings give a much needed confidence boost for the struggling U.S. economy. "I think...

ASEAN pushes for resumption of N. Korea nuke talks

ASEAN and friends: Foreign Ministers from left, Vietnam's Pham Gia Khiem, South Korea's Kim Sung-hwan, Japan's Takeaki Matsumoto, Indonesia's Marty Natalegawa, and China's Yang Jiechi, hold hands during a group photo at the opening session of ASEAN Plus Three Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Nusa Dua, Bali, Indonesia, Thursday. (AP/Dita Alangkara) Associated Press, Nusa Dua | Thu, 07/21/2011 2:19 PM Foreign ministers from 10 Southeast Asian nations are calling for a speedy resumption of talks aimed at convincing North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons program. China, the US, Japan, South Korea and Russia had been negotiating since 2003 to persuade Pyongyang to dismantle the program in exchange for aid and other concessions. The North pulled out of the talks about two years ago after being censured for launching a long-range rocket. It has indicated a willingness in recent months to return to the table. The 10-member Association of Southeast As...