Voters have made up their minds: Survey

M. Taufiqurrahman, Jakarta

The heightened efforts by presidential candidates to form coalitions ahead of the Sept. 20 runoff will not help much, as voters have already made up their minds as to whom they would elect, a new survey said on Friday.

In its latest survey, the Washington-based International Foundation for Election Systems (IFES) found that undecided voters whose favorite candidates were eliminated in the first- round presidential election on July 5 had decided on their choices.

It said undecided voters would likely favor front-runner Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and running mate Jusuf Kalla.

"Of the 56 percent of respondents who harbored no sympathy nor suspicion toward Susilo-Kalla, and incumbent President Megawati Soekarnoputri and Hasyim Muzadi in the first round of the election, 56 percent would vote for Susilo and 30 percent would choose Megawati," the survey said.

The latest result came from a tracking survey that interviewed 1,250 people in all 32 provinces from July 7 to July 14. The margin of error for its national data is 2.8 percent.

The IFES survey also found that of the 17 percent respondents who were neutral toward Megawati, 71 percent would likely vote for Susilo and only 19 percent for the incumbent president.

Based on the respondents' vote during the July 5 election, the IFES projected that Susilo-Kalla would win the runoff.

"Assuming that Susilo-Kalla and Megawati-Hasyim would contest the runoff, the former would be endorsed by 66 percent of the respondents as opposed to Megawati-Hasyim, who would be voted for by 24 percent of them," it said.

As the pollster had found in previous surveys, Susilo was favored by most respondents to lead the country because of his personality.

"Thirty-six percent of respondents said personality mattered the most, while another 21 percent perceived that his policies on certain issues would serve as basis for their choices."

The IFES has consistently placed Susilo-Kalla as the front- runner in its polls, which have been fielded since last December.

In the previous survey, the results of which were published only days before election day, the IFES said 43.5 percent of respondents would vote for Susilo.

The manual vote-count of July ballots showed Susilo had garnered 33.6 percent of over 150 million votes in the first round.

Earlier, local pollster Indonesian Survey Institute (LSI) said between 5 to 17 percent of supporters of eliminated candidates had not decided on their preferences for the runoff.

The Institute of Research, Education and Information on Social and Economic Affairs (LP3ES) also found in its latest poll that 70 percent of the 26 million people who voted for Wiranto were still undecided.

The latest IFES survey also confirmed overwhelming positive response to the July 5 election, despite the controversial KPU ruling that validated double-perforated ballots at the last minute.

"Ninety-three percent of respondents believed that the poll was conducted freely and fairly, up from respondents' perception on the conduct of the April 5 legislative election, which reached 86 percent," said Yanti Sugarda, managing director of the Poll Center, a local partner of the IFES.