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.