Sarah Yuniarni, Jakarta – Most Indonesian millennials plan to vote in next year's presidential election, with many indicating that they prefer candidates who are assertive and strong-willed, a survey by global market research firm Ipsos showed on Tuesday (18/09).
Around 96 percent of millennials said they will vote in the 2019 election, while about 2 percent indicated that they would not, and the rest said they had yet to decide.
The AsiaBUS survey saw Ipsos conduct random sampling among 1,009 male and female respondents between the ages of 15 and 64, with 501 of them being millennials in the age group 23-38.
The survey was held in Jakarta, Surabaya (East Java), Bandung (West Java), Medan (North Sumatra) and Makassar (South Sulawesi) on Aug. 13-26.
Aside from millennials, around 124 of the respondents were between the ages of 17 and 21, who will vote for the first time this year. The remainder are over the age of 38.
The report showed that about 92 percent of first-time voters would likely do so next year, while the remainder are still undecided.
Meanwhile, about 97 percent of older respondents said they would vote, while the remainder indicated that they plan to stay away from the polling stations next year.
The report showed that first-time voters tend to be idealistic, preferring candidates with clean track records, while millennials prefer strong-willed, assertive candidates. Older voters also tend to prefer assertive candidates, but expect them to be more religious.
"This is very encouraging to see how young Indonesians already understand their right to vote and being prepared to exercise that right. There are more interesting insights on Indonesian millennials we can share, but this is already a good start," said Suresh Ramalingam, newly appointed chief executive of Ipsos Southeast Asia.
This is the first AsiaBUS report Ipsos conducted in Indonesia. Ipsos Indonesia managing director Soeprapto Tan said the AsiaBUS report is a quarterly survey and the company plans to conduct a follow-up survey with regards to millennial voters next month.
"We plan to do the survey quarterly until next year; maybe several months before the election takes place," Soeprapto said.
France-based Ipsos is a global market research and consulting firm focusing on several areas, including media and advertising, opinion and social issues and employee relationship management.
Ipsos is widely known in the United States and Europe, as it regularly conducts social and political research on presidential campaigns, gender equality issues and social phenomena.