Survey Agencies Refusing to be Aiduted Criticized

Jakarta (Antara) - Experts said it is irregular if survey agencies refused to have the results of their surveys of the presidential election audited. Erwan Agus Purwanto, a dean of the state Gajah Mada University, said such survey agencies would raise suspicion that they had misused scientific method for certain political goal. "It would be a setback in the process of democratization and is very much against ethics that survey agencies would be politically motivated," Erwan said here on Saturday. Persepi has expressed suspicion about the quick count results released by two of its members JSI and Puskaptis. The quick count results released by JSI and Puskaptis showed that the presidential election was won by candidate Prabowo Subianto in contrary to the quick count results released by its five other members. The quick count results of five other members of the association Lembaga Survei Indonesia (LSI), Indikator, SMRC, Cyrus Network and Populi Center, showed that rival candidate Joko Widodo (Jokowi) is the winner. The conflicting results with both candidates claiming victory have confused the people and caused big concern among the politicians and the government. A number of observers have expressed concern that the condition has split the people and is potential to trigger conflicts. Erwan said survey agencies have to be ready to be audited scientifically for the public and national interest. The audit is necessary to find out the mistake in the use of method of surveys, he said. A member of the Persepi Ethics Council Hamdi Muluk said,"We will audit members of the association for clarification, whether they had followed the right scientific method or not breaching the ethical code . We will publicly announce the result of audit." Non members of Persepi , the state radio broadcasting station (RRI) and the Kompas research center also released quick count results favoring Jokowi and his running mate Jusuf Kalla. (*)