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Exit polls muzzled until 3 p.m. for ‘free, fair’ elections
In its ruling, the Constitutional Court argued that with three different time zones, those who live in the country’s eastern region would cast their votes earlier than those who live in the western part.
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Milestone: A man prepares polling station TPS 15 in Keraton district, Yogyakarta, on Tuesday. A red carpet has been rolled out in the TPS, where there is also a wood signpost emblazoned with the Javanese greeting monggo (welcome). Yogyakarta Sultan Hamengkubuwono X and his family will vote at the TPS during the country’s first simultaneous presidential and legislative elections on Wednesday. (The Jakarta Post/Tarko Sudiarno)
T
he announcement of exit poll results on Wednesday may lose the element of suspense after the Constitutional Court ruled that pollsters can only start announcing the tally two hours after the poll wraps up.
In a ruling on Tuesday, the nine justices rejected a judicial review petition challenging a provision in the 2017 Elections Law banning polling agencies from immediately airing exit poll results after voting ends.
The court upheld Article 449 Point 5 of the law, which requires exit polls to be published two hours after voting closes in the western part of Indonesia, arguing that doing so would protect voting rights and ensure free and fair elections.
As a consequence, the public can only see the results of exit polls announced by pollsters from 3 p.m. in the western Indonesia time zone or Jakarta time.
Polling agencies, who raised eyebrows over the court’s ruling — which contradicted the court’s stance in previous elections — said by the time they released the results of the exit polls, who was in the lead would likely be
apparent.
Jakarta-based pollsters, including Saiful Mujani Research and Consulting (SMRC) and Indikator Politik Indonesia, is confident that more than 50 percent of presidential election quick counts at polling stations across the country will be gathered by 3 p.m.
