Jakarta – It could be the moment of truth, not only for the Jakarta gubernatorial candidates, but for pollsters as well.
In addition to mistakenly forecasting the victory of the incumbent Governor Fauzi Bowo, most survey organizations also failed to predict the correct percentage of voter turnout this year, which surprisingly stayed at roughly the same level compared to the last gubernatorial election in 2007.
Prior to polling on Wednesday, various surveys predicted that Jakarta would see more citizens showing up in polling stations to cast their votes for this year's election.
In their respective surveys, pollsters argued that Jakartans would be more enthusiastic in voting in this year's election as they were now being offered more candidates to choose from. Six candidate pairs competed for this year's election, while only two pairs, Adang Daradjatun-Dani Anwar and Fauzi Bowo-Prijanto, competed in 2007.
The Indonesian Survey Circle said on Wednesday that only 63 percent of the capital's 6.9 million eligible voters exercised their rights to vote in this year's election, while the Indonesian Survey Institute estimated citizen participation at 64.45 percent. The voter turnout in 2007 was 65.26 percent.
Indo Barometer executive director Muhammad Qodari, whose survey organization released a survey in May predicting that more than 85 percent of Jakarta's eligible voters would vote in the July 11 election, said that this year's lower turnout reflected voter apathy.
"Despite being offered six different candidates to choose from, voters felt that their votes would not make any difference to Jakarta," he said on Wednesday.
Qodari also attributed the low voter turnout to administrative problems surrounding the voting, such as the problematic electoral roll prepared by the Jakarta General Elections Commission (KPU Jakarta). "For example, many Jakartans intending to vote unfortunately found their names were not listed in the KPU Jakarta voter list," he added.
Qodari's arguments were echoed by the Indonesian Institute political observer Hanta Yuda, who said that the six candidates competing in this year's election were still not "appealing enough" to Jakarta's voters.
He also believed that the low turnout was partly caused by the fact that many state and private institutions throughout the capital, such as administration offices, education facilities and banks, still operated normally despite the Jakarta administration's regulation mandating the election day as a public holiday.
"These people actually wanted to vote, but they just could not do it because of their work," Hanta told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.
Wati, a 30-year-old bank employee who resides in Slipi, West Jakarta, decided not to vote as going to the polling station was in her opinion"way too troublesome".
"I only rent a room in West Jakarta for work. If I wanted to cast my vote, I had to go to East Jakarta [where my ID address is located]. Hence, I preferred to have a morning's rest rather than casting a vote since I had to go to my work in the afternoon," she said on Wednesday. (sat/cor)