Poll surveyors opposed to quick count control

Adianto P. Simamora , The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Thu, 02/21/2008 12:08 PM | National

Poll surveyors have voiced their opposition to a law that would ban election-day "quick counts".

The draft election law, expected to be passed by the House of Representatives on Feb. 27, would keep surveyors from releasing estimates during the one-day period following the vote.

The protesting surveyors were the Center of Political Study at the University of Indonesia (Puskapol UI), the Indonesian Survey Institute (LSI), the Institute of Research, Education and Information on Social and Economic Affairs (LP3ES) and the Research and Development Center of Kompas daily.

They argued Tuesday that the quick count system is currently the only effective tool in preventing vote rigging in elections.

"It is a tool to check whether the number of votes is correctly tallied by comparing data from quick counts and official results," Puskapol UI director Sri Budi Eko Wardani told a news conference.

She said the House of Representatives should accept the current vote-count system as part of global measures to make the electoral system better.

"The quick count will help ensure transparency and the country's democracy work," she said.

Sri said quick counts might no longer be necessary once the country had managed to implement "real count" systems such as those in place in the United States and other developed countries.

"We would like to see the quick count results aired as soon as possible after the balloting," she said.

"One of the crucial phases in elections is the vote counting. It is very prone to manipulation. Therefore, the quick count is aimed at monitoring possible manipulations during the vote count."

The quick count was first introduced during the presidential election in 1999.

The practice caught on during the 2004 direct presidential election won by Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

"The quick count system is now common in regional elections across the country," Sri said, adding that the public appeared eager to hear preliminary results as soon as possible after polls closed.

National and regional election bodies typically don't issue official poll results until a month or so after voting ends.

The surveyors also opposed provisions of the draft election law which would prohibit publication of election surveys during three-day "quiet" periods that precede voting.

"Not every type of election survey can be prohibited. We want the House to be more specific. Which kind of surveys cannot be published during the quiet period?" said LSI executive director Saiful Mujani.

He said the concern of the House might be that the publication of poll surveys could influence people who hadn't voted yet and would be subject to manipulation.

"They also think the surveys could disturb the public and trigger conflicts."

Saiful, however, felt the benefits outweighed the risks. "For us, surveys are to measure public opinions on election. It is part of efforts to educate people about the election."

Beyond predicting who would win or lose -- the primary issue focused on by the media -- Saiful said exit surveys also served to collect data on preparations for elections, overall voter turnout trends and familiarity with poll programs.

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