CAMPAIGNS FOR SINGLE-ROUND ELECTION DANGEROUS

By Andi Abdussalam

Jakarta, June 26 (ANTARA) - Experts have warned the public about the danger of the campaign of a certain presidential success team to finish the upcoming presidential elections in a single round.

        The campaign to finish the presidential race in one round could lead to justification of any means and dishonest practices. After all, the reference they use to launch the campaign is the results of allegedly biased poll surveys. This will fool the public, they say.

        The results of certain poll surveys have so far indicated that incumbent President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY), who pairs with Boediono has always led the polls with an electability rate over 60 percent.

        According to executive Director of Indonesia Survey Institute (LSI) Syaiful Mujani, the SBY-Boediono ticket's electability has remained above those of its rivals. Accoring to a recent survey held on June 15-20, 2009, the SBY-Boediono ticket would collect 67 percent of the vote, the Megawati-Prabowo ticket 16 percent and the Jusuf Kalla-Wiranto ticket 9.0 percent.

        These survey results had led the SBY-Boediono camp to campaign for a one-round election. "The election will not run in two rounds because the SBY-Boediono duo is predicted to gain a land-slide victory or rank far ahead of the two other presidential candidates," SBY-Boediono national campaign team spokesman Ramadhan Pohan said last week.

        Support for the one-round election aim was voiced by People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) Chairman Hidayat Nur Wahid. Wahid is a former president of the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), one of the political parties in coalition with SBY's Democratic Party.

        Hidayat called on the nation's three presidential candidates to do their best to complete their upcoming race in just one round for the sake of efficiency.

        "At the risk of being seen as emulating the 'arrogance' of the SBY-Boediono camp, I entreat everybody to think in a way benefiting the nation in the long run, namely to complete the presidential election in a single round," Hidayat said last week.

        However, political observer of the University of Indonesia, Mawandi Rauf criticized the campaign against a two-round presidential election, saying it is dangerous because it could lead to the justification of any means and dishonest practices in the run up to the polls.

        "The anti-two-round presidential poll movement is something dangerous because it could lead to the use of unfair ways," he said on Friday.

        He said it was not ethical to promote the idea of holding the election in just one round in the ongoing electoral campaign.

        Rauf said the themes of an electoral campaign should be focused on the candidates' visions and missions that could attract the voters' sympathy or support.

        "An electoral campaign should dwell on issues expected to attract people's support. Campaigning for the idea that the election should be completed in only one round is beyond the limit of political propriety," he said.

        In the meantime, constitutional expert and election observer Irman Putra Sidin said that the idea to hold a single round of election is difficult to realize.

        "The law stipulates a winner should win not only the number of votes but also the spread of the votes, namely at least 20 percent votes won in more than half of the number of provinces," Irman Putra Sidin said on Friday.

        It seems that the idea to launch a single-round election campaign is based on the results of the poll survey. But Irman Putra Sidin has doubt about the survey results, not to mention if the survey institutes are part of the success teams of certain candidates.

        "After all, the results of the survey did not mention the spread of locations from where votes are collected. This will fool the public," he aid.

        Secretary of the Indonesian Public Opinions Research Association (AROPI), Umar S Bakry said the results of a survey nowadays were difficult to be accepted as a reference to conclude that the presidential polls would last only in a single round.

        This was because many results of various surveys had sharp differences, even if they used the same methodology and organized them in the same period.

        He said that there was a survey which placed the Mega-Pro ticket behind on the list but the other survey put it on the first one. "They used the same methodology and organized it in the same period, but results differ" Bakry said.

        If LSI survey shows that SBY-Boediono's electability could collect 69 percent while Mega-Pro 16 percent, the Indonesia Development Monitoring (IDM)'s survey results show otherwise.

        According to the IDM, the electability of the Megawati Soekarnoputri-Prabowo ticket reached 44.3 percent, above that of SBY-Boediono which was recorded at 30.43 percent or Jusuf Kalla-Wiranto that reached only 13.2 percent.

        Therefore, the campaign to finish the polls in a single round is also viewed by the other observer as a political ploy. The idea to finish in only one round to save state funds is not a moral message with noble intentions.

        "This idea is clearly not a moral message but a political and business-oriented move serving the interest of a certain party," Umar S Bakry, executive director of the National Survey Institute (LSN).

        Irman Putra Sidin however said that the movement finish the presidential polls in a single round was actually a noble idea because it would mean that the legitimacy of the winner was big.

        However, he said, it is difficult now to conclude whether the presidential elections on July 8, 2009 would last only in a single round or not. It seemed that chances are fifty-fifty.

        "So, if there are people who say that the presidential elections would last only in a single round, such statement is premature and careless," he said.***1*** (A014/A/HAJM/A/S012) 20:20/...... ) (T.A014/A/A014/A/S012) 26-06-2009 20:57:51