Presidential poll in Semarang

Presidential poll in Semarang

SEMARANG, Central Java: A poll of 625 students at the state
Diponegoro University here found that 82.1 percent of respondents
believe a change in the national leadership should take place
during the plenary session of the People's Consultative Assembly
in March.

The poll, conducted by the student senate, also collected
names of likely candidates to succeed President Soeharto. Among
those put forward were: ousted leader of the Indonesian
Democratic Party Megawati Soekarnoputri, chairman of the
Nahdlatul Ulema Abdurrahman Wahid, Muhammadiyah chairman Amien
Rais, Minister of Finance Mar'ie Muhammad, State Minister of
National Development Planning Ginandjar Kartasasmita and Minister
of Information R. Hartono.

The poll follows a recent vote conducted by students at Gadjah
Mada University in Yogyakarta. They also said that the time for
change had come.

The chairman of the student senate, Tafrikan Marzuki, admitted
that the results of the poll may not truly represent the voice of
Diponegoro University's 15,000 students.

"It's alright if someone brushes aside the results of the poll
as biased, because we did use a proportional accidental nonrandom
sampling technique," he said here yesterday.

The University's rector, Muladi, disregarded the poll as a a
completely unnecessary stunt given the country's economic
doldrums.

He added that the methodology used in the poll was also
questionable. (har)