JAKARTA (Yosefardi) — Koran Tempo, a national newspaper, has published a report on Monday (Sep 2) accusing incumbent Governor of East Java province, Soekarwo, to have paid off polling agencies for his own interest related to the gubernatorial election held on May 29, 2013. The denial, meanwhile, came from both Soekarwo and pollsters.
The report said Soekarwo had allegedly paid money to three pollsters among others the Indonesian Survey Circle (LSI), Saiful Mujani Research & Consulting (SMRC), and Proximity. These three pollsters have conducted a quick count of East Java election and their poll results pointed to the victory of Soekarwo, a politician from President SBY’s Democratic Party.
“We have no budget allocation for (hiring pollsters to conduct) quick count,” said Martono from the campaign team of Soekarwo, as quoted by Koran Tempo.
However, Martono admitted that since the beginning of the election, his team has used the services of polling agencies to help the team, instead of for manipulating the results of quick counts.
Similar denials came from three polling agencies.
“That’s not true! The fund of quick count was sourced from our cooperation with two television stations. There’s no need to manipulate the quick count,” said Djayadi Hanan, Research Director of SMRC, as quoted by Koran Tempo.
Arman Salam, Research Director of LSI, however, admitted that LSI has been hired by Soekarwo’s team to conduct a research related to the election. But he convinced that the results of quick count released by LSI was objective.
As reported earlier, Soekarwo won East Java election with 46.6-47.97% votes based on exit polls released by several polling agencies. Soekarwo, endorsed by a big coalition of 30 political parties led by Democratic Party and Golkar, beats his three contenders, including his strongest contender, Khofifah Indar Parawansa.
But Khofifah, in a press conference, claimed that she won the election. According to Khofifah, the real count conducted by her party, PKB, pointed to her victory with 44% votes, beating Soekarwo in the second position with 38.47% votes. (haryantos@yosefardi.biz)