PRABOWO BELIEVES ELECTION TO FINISH IN TWO ROUNDS

Jakarta, June 5 (ANTARA) - Vice presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto said he believed the presidential election on July 8 will finish in two rounds.

"We have our own yardsticks and indicators which are indeed different from what was used in the LSI (Lembaga Survei Indonesia - pollster) survey. We all know who is behind LSI. It is impossible for the race to finish in one round. It will go into a second round," he said here on Friday.

Prabowo, a former military figure, is the running mate of former president Megawati Soekarnoputri.

After inaugurating the Prabowo United Supporters Front (F-PPP) Prabowo said everybody knew well about the results of the LSI survey. "Why they would not just say 99 percent so he may just win," he said about the results of the LSI survey on May 25-30 showing 70 percent of its respondents would vote for Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in the election.

Prabowo said the LSI survey result could not be used as a reference, adding it was impossible for the race to finish in one round.

According to the LSI survey result, the electability of the Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY)-Boediono ticket was the highest compared with those of Megawati-Prabowo and Jusuf Kalla-Wiranto.

LSI director Kuskrido Ambardi said when presenting the survey result recently that 71 percent of respondents would choose SBY-Boediono. Only 16.4 percent would support Megawati-Prabowo and 6.0 percent Kalla-Wiranto.

The survey done on May 25-30 through face-to-face interviews involved 2,999 respondents from 33 provinces in the country with a margin of error of 1.8 percent and reliability rate of 95 percent.

The survey was done by LSI upon the request of Fox Indonesia (the consultant for the SBY-Boediono campaign).