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Voters reluctant to demand fulfilment of campaign promises: Study
A survey commissioned by the political and governance study program at the University of Gadjah Madaâs (UGM) School of Social and Political Sciences reveals that 85 percent of voters have never demanded the fulfilment of campaign promises made by elected lawmakers, considering that legislative bodies in Indonesia seem to be unable to convey the aspirations of the countryâs citizens
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survey commissioned by the political and governance study program at the University of Gadjah Mada's (UGM) School of Social and Political Sciences reveals that 85 percent of voters have never demanded the fulfilment of campaign promises made by elected lawmakers, considering that legislative bodies in Indonesia seem to be unable to convey the aspirations of the country's citizens.
'It is very ironic to see that many voters feel that they don't need to demand the fulfilment of promises conveyed by both the legislative members and political parties during campaigns. This shows that Indonesian voters are getting more rational; they perceive many lawmakers are still unable to become representatives of the people in the legislative bodies,' said Nur Azizah, one of the program's researchers, during the launch of the study in Yogyakarta on Tuesday.
The Voters' Behavior and Linkage Patterns between People and Politicians research was conducted in Magelang and Yogyakarta during the period of July and August. Using a random sampling method, the study's researchers collected the views of 300 respondents who represented four society groups: disabled persons, women, workers and the general public.
Dodi Ambardi, a political communications expert from the UGM, said there was little chance for politicians or lawmakers in Indonesia to fulfil their campaign promises.
'During election campaigns, politicians tend to focus on how they can win the election instead of how to deliver something they are committed to implementing,' he said.
Dodi said that what happened in previous elections was that two of the groups, disabled persons and women, had drawn less attention from the candidate lawmakers during the 2014 election campaign. The issues of women and disabled persons were deemed less sexy than other issues, so it was unlikely for candidate lawmakers to focus their attention on those two particular groups during campaigns.
'It was contrary to the results of surveys in four big cities ' East Kalimantan, Makassar, Yogyakarta and part of East Java ' which showed that 89.1 percent of legislature election candidates had included disability issues in their campaign visions and missions,' said Dodi. (ebf)(++++)
