Voters deem presidential election fair and clean: Survey

The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Thu, 07/16/2009 6:31 PM  |  Election 2009

The latest survey conducted by the Indonesian Survey Institute (LSI) revealed that most voters considered the July 8 presidential election “fair and clean”, despite reports of electoral fraud filed by the losing candidates.

From the approximately 2,000 respondents from 33 provinces across the country surveyed on July 8, 33 percent said the election was “very fair and clean”, while nearly 60 percent said the election was “fair and clean enough”.

Only around 6 percent of respondents were discontent with the election process, and labeled it “flawed”.

“In general, voters thought the election was fair and clean. This contrasts to the most recent statements by the losing political elite who suggested that the election process was flawed and unfair,” LSI Executive Director, Dodo Ambardi, said at his office in Menteng, Central Jakarta, on Thursday.

The presidential candidate from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), Megawati Sukarnoputri, and her running mate Prabowo Subianto from the Great Indonesian Movement Party (Gerindra), recently said they would not concede defeat and sign the official election results, citing rampant electoral fraud.

Rocky Gerung, a political expert from the University of Indonesia, said the statistics in the survey did not necessarily depict current voter sentiment accurately.

“The survey asked for responses from people who had just cast their ballots. At that time, they had no idea of the election results,” he said.

“The percentage of people believing the election was fair and balanced could have greatly changed by now following the results of quick counts and growing disputes over the validity of the election process,” he said. (hdt)
 

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