(06/18/09) -

Indonesians Overwhelmingly Support Susilo

(Angus Reid Global Monitor) – The vast majority of people in Indonesia would keep Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono as their country’s president, according to a poll by the Indonesian Survey Circle. 63.1 per cent of respondents would vote for Susilo in next month’s presidential election.

(Angus Reid Global Monitor) – The vast majority of people in Indonesia would keep Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono as their country’s president, according to a poll by the Indonesian Survey Circle. 63.1 per cent of respondents would vote for Susilo in next month’s presidential election.

Former president Megawati Sukarnoputri of the Struggling Indonesian Democratic Party (PDIP) is a distant second with 16.4 per cent, followed by current vice-president Jusuf Kalla of the Party of the Functional Groups (Golkar) with 5.9 per cent.

Susilo—a security minister who ran as the candidate of the Democrat Party (PD)—won the September 2004 presidential election with 60.62 per cent of the vote in a run-off over incumbent Megawati. The vote marked the first time Indonesian voters picked their head of state through the ballot box.

Indonesia held a legislative election on Apr. 9. Under existing guidelines, a party or coalition must win at least 20 per cent of the seats in the House or 25 per cent of the popular vote in the legislative election in order to nominate a presidential candidate. Only three tickets were registered.

On Jun. 7, Megawati and running-mate Prabowo Subianto signed a document promising to "do our utmost to do away with the outsourcing system" and pledging to protect workers from losing their jobs.

The presidential ballot will place on Jul. 8. If no contender garners more than 50 per cent of the vote, a run-off will follow on Sept. 8.

Polling Data

Who would you vote for in the next presidential election?

Source: Indonesian Survey Circle
Methodology: Interviews with 4,000 Indonesian adults, conducted in May 2009. Margin of error is 2.4 per cent.