ID :
60899
Sat, 05/16/2009 - 19:16
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://www.oananews.org//node/60899
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SBY`S CHOICE OF BOEDIONO COULD BENEFIT HIS RIVALS : OBSERVER
Ternate, Indonesia, May 16 (ANTARA) - Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY)'s decision to choose Boediono as his running mate in the upcoming presidential election could prove to be an advantage to his rivals because of people's negative perceptions about Boediono's credentials.
"People who initially wanted to vote for Yudhoyono in the presidential election could well change their mind and vote for another candidate because they don't like SBY's running mate," Dr Husein Alting, a political observer at Ternate's Khairun university, said here Saturday.
People's disapproval of Boediono was related to quite sensitive issues such as perceptions that Boediono did not represent the Islamist community, was a neo-liberalist, and not a representative of non-Javanese people, he said.
If these popular perceptions continued to prevail until polling day, Boediono's popularity rating would hit rock bottom and this would undoubtedly adversely affect the SBY-Boediono ticket's vote getting capability, Alting said.
The fact that many parties had formed a coalition with SBY's Democratic Party to support the Yudhoyono-Boediono ticket was not a fool-proof guarantee that public rejection of Boediono would not affect the duo's election returns, he said.
This was so considering that many executives and cadres of the parties in the Democratic Party-led coalition such as PKS and PAN had openly expressed their objections to Boediono. These dissenters would possibly vote for other presidential candidates.
Alting believed Yudhoyono had picked Boediono not to gain more votes but to assist him in his state duties if he was reelected.
"Yudhoyono is banking on his own popularity to win most of the votes in the upcoming presidential election. Also on the victory of his Demcoratic Party in the recent legislative election and the many parties supporting his candidacy," Alting said,
Yudhoyono apparently did not want a deputy with structural links with any political party because such links would only reduce the vice president's concentration on his state duties. This was possibly what he had felt during his almost five years in office with a vice president who was also a party leader.
Alting said if this was really the reason Yudhoyono had picked Boediono, it was, of course, a good thing. But it would have been better if he had chosen a figure who was acceptable to the public at large, especially the supporters of the parties in the Democratic Party-led coalition. ***
"People who initially wanted to vote for Yudhoyono in the presidential election could well change their mind and vote for another candidate because they don't like SBY's running mate," Dr Husein Alting, a political observer at Ternate's Khairun university, said here Saturday.
People's disapproval of Boediono was related to quite sensitive issues such as perceptions that Boediono did not represent the Islamist community, was a neo-liberalist, and not a representative of non-Javanese people, he said.
If these popular perceptions continued to prevail until polling day, Boediono's popularity rating would hit rock bottom and this would undoubtedly adversely affect the SBY-Boediono ticket's vote getting capability, Alting said.
The fact that many parties had formed a coalition with SBY's Democratic Party to support the Yudhoyono-Boediono ticket was not a fool-proof guarantee that public rejection of Boediono would not affect the duo's election returns, he said.
This was so considering that many executives and cadres of the parties in the Democratic Party-led coalition such as PKS and PAN had openly expressed their objections to Boediono. These dissenters would possibly vote for other presidential candidates.
Alting believed Yudhoyono had picked Boediono not to gain more votes but to assist him in his state duties if he was reelected.
"Yudhoyono is banking on his own popularity to win most of the votes in the upcoming presidential election. Also on the victory of his Demcoratic Party in the recent legislative election and the many parties supporting his candidacy," Alting said,
Yudhoyono apparently did not want a deputy with structural links with any political party because such links would only reduce the vice president's concentration on his state duties. This was possibly what he had felt during his almost five years in office with a vice president who was also a party leader.
Alting said if this was really the reason Yudhoyono had picked Boediono, it was, of course, a good thing. But it would have been better if he had chosen a figure who was acceptable to the public at large, especially the supporters of the parties in the Democratic Party-led coalition. ***
