Jakarta – The results of a new survey released Tuesday show Jakartans preferred a single-round presidential election because they thought a second round would be a waste of money.
The survey, conducted by the Institute of Public Policy Studies (LSKP) among 440 respondents between June 20 and 25 in Jakarta, found more than 89 percent of respondents would prefer a one-round election.
"89.1 percent of respondents said they fully agreed with the idea of having a one-round election," LSKP director Sunarto Ciptoharjono told a press conference in Jakarta on Tuesday.
"57.7 percent of those who said they would prefer a single-round election said this would reduce election costs, while around 18.3 percent said they were bored with the elections," Sunarto added.
A political analyst from the Islamic State University (UIN), Bachtiar Effendy, said the survey had several flaws.
"For example, it only surveyed 440 respondents in Jakarta. The presidential election is a national issue, so I am not sure what kind of conclusion we can get from this," Bachtiar said.
"It also contains a worrying fact about our democracy: The survey says a large number of Jakartans are bored with the election.
"If this can be used as a representation of the nation's sentiment towards the election, then I truly feel our democracy is in danger.
"Elections are the only proper mechanism to appoint public officials in a democratic country," he said.
Bachtiar was also worried that the other conclusion from the survey could spark further controversy.
"The survey tends to be biased in favor of a certain candidate. Such a tendency will surely cast more doubts over the integrity of survey institutions," he said.
The survey also revealed that around 70 percent of respondents would pick incumbent President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, while Megawati came in second with 9.6 percent, and Kalla gained 3.9 percent of respondents' votes.
The presidential election law stipulates that a candidate must garner more than 50 percent of votes to win the July 8 election in one round.
Political experts and politicians, however, have questioned the integrity of survey institutions because most are funded by certain candidates, and they often present contrasting results.