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Did you know?: The history of opinion polls
In Soehartoâs New Order era, opinion poll bodies did not have a place within the system as election winners were easily predicted
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n Soeharto's New Order era, opinion poll bodies did not have a place within the system as election winners were easily predicted.
But since 1999, opinion polls have bloomed. Five opinion poll bodies that pioneered the election survey were: the Resource Productivity Center (RPC); International Foundation for Election Systems (IFES); Institute of Research, Education and Information of Social and Economic Affairs (LP3ES); Kompas Daily Research and Development Center; Committee on Voters Empowerment (KPP); and the University of Indonesia (UI) Political Department Lab.
RPC conducted a survey on Dec. 1998 ' Jan. 1999 that was exclusively published by The Jakarta Post on Jan. 23, 1999. IFES conducted a survey on Dec. 1998 ' Feb. 1999, LP3ES in May 1999, Kompas on Apr. 17-27, 1999 and KPP-UI Political Department Lab. in April 1999.
All the survey bodies predicted the winner of the 1999 election, even though only LP3ES and IFES had less than a 5 percent margin of error. Today, survey bodies are growing as their predictions get better with smaller margins of error. The Election Law also regulates the survey bodies.
' Benni Yusriza
