Jakarta. Political observer Hanta Yuda said candidates in regional elections would do better to conduct a good campaign than relying on polls or surveys from polling agencies to drive public opinion.

Hanta, also an executive director at the Poltracking survey agency, said a well-organized campaign can still have a significant impact on a candidate’s chance to win an election.

Nevertheless, many of these candidates and their campaign teams – including those in Jakarta – have relied more on survey results to usher public opinion.

"They should avoid this. Ushering public opinion is not the real function of a survey agency," Hanta said at a discussion in Jakarta on Saturday (21/01).

Survey results, according to Hanta, only sum up public perceptions using selected respondents and have little effect on forming public opinion.

Hanta said survey agencies should focus on mapping out political conditions and predicting election results.

Another political expert, Eep Saefulloh Fattah, said survey results are unlikely to change people's mind.

Eep said survey agencies should be transparent about their research methods to avoid suspicions and controversies.

The former academic, now the director of PolMark Research Center (PRC) Indonesia, added that survey results should match the data gathered by the agencies.

Jakarta survey results

Ahead of the Jakarta gubernatorial election in February, various surveys results have been published predicting who will become the eventual winner among incumbents Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama-Djarot Saiful Hidayat and challengers Anies Baswedan-Sandiaga Uno and Agus Harimurti Yudhoyono-Sylviana Murni.

Poltracking Indonesia said in a poll released on Thursday (19/01) that Anies' and Ahok's approval ratings significantly increased in the past two months, but Agus remained a frontrunner in the race.

Another poll released by the Indonesian Survey Organization on Friday showed Anies-Sandiaga were still trailing in last place. Sandiaga said the poll result does not affect his confidence, arguing that the survey was conducted to deliberately influence voters' opinion after the first official gubernatorial debate.

A survey conducted by the Saiful Mujani Research and Consulting firm after the first televised debate on Friday, Jan. 13, meanwhile suggested that undecided voters are most likely to vote for Ahok in next month's election.

The survey said many of Agus-Sylvi's and Anies-Sandiaga's supporters are actually still undecided. They are likely to swing their votes to Ahok and Djarot come election day.