SURVEY: ECONOMIC ISSUE TOPS INDONESIAN ELECTION AGENDA IN 2009
Xinhua News Agency - February 7, 2008JAKARTA, Feb. 7 (Xinhua) -- Good economic growth, reduction of the unemployment and poverty rates will be the key to electoral sentiment in the 2009 general election, according to a latest survey conducted by the Indonesian Survey Institute (LSI).
"If President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono fails to improve present economic conditions, and is unable to lower the unemployment and poverty rates, Sultan Hamengkubuwono X will possibly be the figure with the potential to win the 2009 polls," LSI Director Saiful Mujani was quoted by Antara News Agency when highlighting the survey's results in Jakarta recently.
In the survey conducted in January 2008 on 1,200 respondents across Indonesia, the Sultan, governor of Yogyakarta, received "considerable" electoral support and his stature during the past three years had tended to rise although it remained far below Susilo's and former President Megawati Soekarnoputri's, Mujani said.
He said people's electoral sentiment toward existing national figures with presidential aspirations had generally become more fragmentized. There was no single figure who had nation-wide electoral attraction.
Susilo as the incumbent would still have the support of 34 percent of the people's votes if there was a fair number of presidential candidates. However, the favorable trend in the electorate's attitude toward Susilo and Megawati dropped by 2 to 3percent in the period October 2007 - January 2008.
The survey had also shown that people's optimism about the government's efforts to tackle poverty, unemployment and the basic commodity price spiral was declining rapidly.
Indonesian people's optimism about the ability of government to control basic commodity prices dropped from 27 to 18 percent, optimism about poverty alleviation fell from 27 to 25 percent and optimism about reducing unemployment declined from 20 to 17 percent.
Some 77.7 percent of the respondents said they had found it harder to buy rice and accompanying foods, 78.2 percent felt it was more difficult for them to buy kerosene and 83.7 percent to buy cooking oil.
"People have become increasingly unsatisfied with the economic condition. But they thought the security and order situation had improved," added Mujani.
Source: Xinhua News Agency - news.xinhuanet.com