Jakarta – While still the front-runner in the presidential race, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has seen his popularity drop days after the official campaign period began, with Vice President Jusuf Kalla's popularity jumping, a new survey found.
The survey, which was conducted by the Policy and Development Strategy Research Center (Puskaptis), polled 2,888 respondents in 33 provinces from June 4 to 11. It also found preference for Megawati Soekarnoputri, presidential hopeful from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), had declined slightly.
Some 52 percent of respondents said they would vote for SBY if the election were held today, with Megawati getting around 22 percent of votes and Kalla 17 percent. Among the respondents, 8.5 percent were still undecided.
A survey by Puskaptis between May 11 to 17 found voter preference for Yudhoyono was around 57 percent. Support for Megawati was put at around 24 percent and Kalla received 12 percent.
"Yudhoyono's voter preference has been declining, and so is Megawati's. Kalla is the only candidate whose voter preference went up, according to our survey. In conclusion, there is a great chance the presidential election will wrap up in two rounds," Puskaptis director Husin Yazid told The Jakarta Post in Jakarta on Sunday.
Recent surveys on voter preferences for the July 8 presidential election have showed contrasting results, creating public confusion as to which one can be trusted.
Surveys conducted by the Indonesian Survey Circle and the Indonesian Survey Institute, both linked to the Democratic Party, suggested Yudhoyono would win the election in one round with more than 60 percent of the vote.
Based on the surveys, Yudhoyono's team has introduced campaign ads arguing it would be better to have a one-round election, in the interests of saving state money.
However, Yudhoyono linked surveys are in stark contrast to those conducted by The Golkar Party aligned Information Research Institute, which report the election will end after a second round, with the incumbent only winning 30 percent of votes in the first round.
Husin assured the Puskaptis' survey was not funded by any of the presidential candidates' campaign teams. "Our survey was funded by one of my own companies, Majalah Survey, which has no affiliation with any of the presidential campaign teams."
A member of Kalla's campaign team, Indra J. Piliang, said he fully believed the election would go onto a second based on the results of the survey. "I think we can say goodbye to a one-round presidential election. The survey shows the tour team has done a great job in improving voter preference for Pak Kalla."
Max Sopacua from SBY's campaign team said his team was very grateful to Puskaptis for conducting the survey. "Will the election end in one or two rounds? We will let the people to decide on that."
Team member for the Megawati campaign Gayus Lumbuun said his party would respect the survey results, but would not let it spoil their campaign for the presidential election.
"We will remain consistent with our idealism during campaigns. We will not change our ideals because of the survey. However, we respect Puskaptis as an institution and its survey." (hdt)