TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Pollster Polmatrix Indonesia claims that its recent survey found that the majority of the public are asking for the 2020 simultaneous regional elections (Pilkada) to be postponed due to the growing number of COVID-19 cases in Indonesia.

“The survey’s finding showed that 72.4 percent of the public prefers the regional elections postponed across each and every region. They mostly fear the large crowds often generated in election events would create new COVID-19 clusters,” said Polmatrix Indonesia executive director, Dendik Rulianto, in today’s press release.

12.1 percent of respondents prefer the same as the majority, but only in regions that are considered as coronavirus ‘red zones.’ Meanwhile, 10.6 percent of respondents want the regional elections to continue despite the pandemic.

The simultaneous regional head elections of 2020 had already been pushed back from its initial date of September 9, 2020, which sought to see elections held across 270 regions in 9 provinces, 224 districts, and 37 cities. The date had been postponed to December 9, 2020.

The Polmatrix Indonesia survey was conducted from September 1 up to September 10, 2020, which involves 2,000 respondents that are deemed sufficient to represent the entire Indonesian provinces. They claim their survey has roughly 2.2 percent margin of error and 95 percent confidence level.

Read also: Mahfud MD: No Convincing Reasons to Postpone Pilkada Elections

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