SMRC Survey: 84.3 Percent Of The Public Wants The President To Be Directly Elected By The People

JAKARTA - The results of the latest Saiful Mujani Research and Consulting (SMRC) national survey showed as many as 84.3 percent of the public wanted the presidential election to be held directly by the people, not by the MPR.

"Only 8.4 percent of the population agreed that the president was not directly elected by the people, but was chosen by the MPR," said SMRC Researcher and Director of Communications, Ade Armando, in launching the results of the SMRC national survey entitled "National Public Attitudes towards Presidential Amendments and DPD" quoted. Between, Sunday, June 20.

According to Ade, this finding can be seen as a response to the desire of some parties to restore articles on the pattern of presidential elections by the parliament which were known before the amendments to the 1945 Constitution in the early days of reform.

"Currently there are groups who, for various reasons, raise the idea of the need for presidential elections to be carried out by the MPR without having to go through direct elections by the people," said Ade.

The SMRC survey shows that the majority of the people do not support the idea of a presidential election by the MPR as in the New Order era.

"The majority of the people think direct elections are the best option," said Ade.

The SMRC survey also shows that 74.7 percent of the public think that the president must be responsible to the people because the president is elected by the people.

Only 18.4 percent thought that the President should be responsible to the MPR.

According to Ade, this research was submitted in the SMRC survey related to the discourse carried by certain groups regarding the need for a new amendment to the 1945 Constitution which regulates the relationship between the president, the MPR, and the people.

The SMRC survey, according to Ade, shows that the majority of the people feel that the arrangement regarding the relationship between the president, the MPR and the people as contained in the 1945 Constitution is the best.

The SMRC survey showed the majority of citizens, 74.7 percent agreed with the opinion that, "The president works according to his promises to the people during the presidential election campaign and must be responsible to the people because the president is elected by the people".

On the other hand, only 18.4 percent agreed with the opinion that, "The president works according to the GBHN set by the MPR and therefore the president must be responsible to the MPR".

"This reinforces the conclusion that the people think it is better for the president to be directly elected by the people and, in turn, be responsible to the people, rather than being elected by the MPR and then being responsible to the MPR," said Ade Armando.

The SMRC national survey was conducted on May 21-28, 2021. The research through face-to-face interviews involved 1072 respondents who were selected through a multistage random sampling method with a research margin of error of around 3.05 percent.