Yudhoyono’s popularity continues to go down: LSI

The Indonesian Survey Institute (LSI) has found in its latest study that even though the popularity of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is on the decline, he remains far more popular than the two other candidates.

The survey, conducted from June 15 to 20, found 67.2 percent of respondents siding with Yudhoyono, 15.8 percent going for Megawati Soekarnoputri, 8.3 percent choosing Vice President Jusuf Kalla, and 8.7 percent undecided.

“We polled 2,000 people in 17 provinces to monitor their responses to presidential and vice presidential candidates,” LSI senior researcher Saiful Mujani said Wednesday at a press conference in Jakarta.

The incumbent’s popularity was lower than the 71 percent the LSI had given him in its May survey. Megawati got 16 percent and Kalla 6 percent in the earlier survey.

In the LSI’s April survey, Yudhoyono obtained 75 percent, Megawati 16 percent and Kalla only 3 percent.

Saiful said Kalla’s popularity was on the rise due to his intensive campaigning and variety of content in his campaign ads, which endeared him more to the public.

However, he pointed out that even with waning popularity, Yudhoyono’s lead over the others was virtually insurmountable, given that polling day was less than two weeks away.

He also stressed the survey was not a real reflection of the presidential election result, but only meant to give the campaign teams an idea of where they stood at present.

Commenting on the survey, Indra J. Piliang from Kalla’s campaign team said he was growing more optimistic about the chances of the Golkar Party chairman getting elected, particularly since there was such a sizeable number of undecided voters.

Rizal Mallarangeng, from Yudhoyono’s campaign team, said he expected the outcome of the July 8 election to not differ by much from the survey’s result.

“This survey can help the candidates’ teams run better campaigns,” he said.

Maruarar Sirait, from Megawati’s campaign team, cast doubt on the legitimacy of the survey, saying the recent slew of similar studies were biased toward certain candidates.

“Most survey agencies are involved in politics, and I see most of them trying to direct public opinion to have the election won in a single round,” he said.

Maruarar added there was a “grand scenario” behind such surveys to bring about a single-round victory for the sake of efficiency.

The LSI’s Saiful was indignant at the “excessive” accusation.

“If you choose to blame the survey, then that’s simply finding a scapegoat,” he chided Maruarar.

“The [survey] result is supposed to be used as input to determine what you should be doing next.”

Maruarar shot back that the results of such surveys could be directed, depending on who funded them, adding the surveyors could have conducted the polling without even realizing they were being manipulated as part of the “grand scenario”.

Saiful replied he had tried to remain professional, despite the LSI being supported by “one of the campaign teams”, referring to the Yudhoyono camp, which he had previously admitted backed the LSI.

“The important thing is we don’t conduct surveys to present skewed results, as the donors would have liked,” he said.

source:http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2009/06/25/yudhoyono%E2%80%99s-popularity-continues-go-down-lsi.html

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