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SBY-Boediono most popular candidates, survey finds
It seems July’s presidential election will be a one-round affair, with incumbent President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono looking set for a landslide win no matter who his running mate is, a recent survey has found
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It seems July’s presidential election will be a one-round affair, with incumbent President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono looking set for a landslide win no matter who his running mate is,
a recent survey has found.
The survey, conducted about two weeks ago by the Indonesian Survey Institute (LSI), surveyed more than 2000 respondents about potential tickets for the presidential election. Around 70 percent said they would vote for Yudhoyono and recently announced running mate Boediono, compared with 21 percent for Megawati Soekarnoputri and Prabowo Subianto and a mere 3 percent for Jusuf Kalla and former Indonesian Military (TNI) chief Endriartono Sutarto.
LSI executive director Saiful Mujani said Thursday that when the survey was conducted, it was believed Kalla would pick Endriartono as his running mate, not Wiranto, Endriatono’s predecessor and eventual choice for the Golkar chairman.
The respondents were asked to choose from a number of presidential tickets, including the partnership of Yudhoyono and Boediono, Yudhoyono and State Secretary Hatta Rajasa, Yudhoyono and People’s Consultative Assembly speaker Hidayat Nur Wahid and Yudhoyono and Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati.
Saiful denied speculation he had been informed of Yudhoyono’s pairing with Boediono beforehand. Confirmation of Boediono’s nomination was announced Tuesday by Yudhoyono’s special envoy Hatta, and will be officially declared on Friday in Bandung.
“The survey found that Yudhoyono won about the same amount of votes regardless of who he was paired with,” Saiful told reporters following the announcement of the results in Jakarta.
“Boediono’s candidacy neither added nor detracted to Yudhoyono’s popularity.”
Saiful, however, did not disclose the actual results from Yudhoyono’s pairing with any other running mate besides Boediono.
In terms of individual candidates, the LSI survey again found Yudhoyono topped the table, particularly since his Democratic Party won the April 9 legislative elections.
His popularity has been steadily increasing since mid-2008, while that of his main contender Megawati has slowly continued to decline.
In LSI’s most recent survey, 67 percent respondents would vote for Yudhoyono, 12 percent for Megawati, 3 percent for Prabowo, 2 percent each for Kalla and Yogyakarta Governor Sultan Hamengkubuwono X and 1 percent for Wiranto.
The survey found Yudhoyono’s popularity among 400 middle-class respondents reached 80 percent, compared to 6 percent for Megawati and 5 percent for Kalla.
Neither religion or ethnicity, according to the survey, held any sway when it came to the electability of Yudhoyono or Boediono. Respondents who said they would vote for the duo were from religious and ethnic backgrounds from across the nation.
Just two months ago, only 51 percent of respondents said they would vote for Yudhoyono, compared to 17 percent for Megawati.
The second direct presidential election is scheduled to take place on July 8.
Only parties or coalition of parties that secure 20 percent of House of Representatives seats, or 25 percent of popular votes in the legislative elections, are eligible to nominate candidates.
