Survey institutes pledge neutrality

Survey institutes pledge neutrality

M. Taufiqurrahman, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Responding to criticism by certain people over results of their
surveys, which correctly predicted the top vote-getter in the
first round of the presidential election, pollsters pledged on
Wednesday to strive for greater accuracy that would be immune
from outside interference.

The Indonesian Survey Institute (LSI) executive director
Muhammad Qodari said there was too much at stake for the
pollsters if they decided to be biased in favor of certain
political parties or presidential candidates.

"Manipulation of public opinion constitutes a manipulation of
the people's aspirations. We, as an organization, would naturally
face a dismal future if we knowingly published misleading
surveys, as donors would no longer fund us and the public would
no longer trust us," Qodari said during a seminar here.

Representatives from the LSI, the International Foundation for
Election System (IFES), the Central Statistics Bureau (BPS) and
the Institute of Economics, Social Studies and Development
(LP3ES) also attended the seminar which was organized by the
International Observer Resource Center.

LSI, IFES and LP3ES have found that most respondents
throughout the country preferred Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono over
Megawati Soekarnoputri in the first round of voting as well as
their latest surveys for the Sept. 20 presidential election
runoff.

One rumor has it that LSI is "close" to Susilo because its
former executive director, Denny J.A., has been seen speaking
with Susilo at various functions. Denny relinquished his post
recently and Qodari replaced him.

IFES' Indonesia Project Manager Alan Wall said the partiality
allegation directed at the pollsters by some groups had been
overblown and tended to overstate the significance of the polling
results.

"Survey results are just one more input that voters should be
able to consider. A voter should be able to see what the rest of
the population thinks about the candidates," he said.

Meanwhile, managing director of the Polling Center, the local
partner of IFES, Yanti B. Sugarda said to prove her institution's
neutrality she would welcome any public scrutiny.

"We believe that we have applied scientific methodology and
you are welcome to monitor every stage of any activity, and ...
you can join our field workers who collect the data," she said.