Those hoping to follow real-time election results tomorrow can do so starting 3pm Western Indonesia Time (WIB) and no earlier, as the Constitutional Court (MK) has rejected a petition by local media that would have allowed them to publish results earlier than that.
The petition, filed by several TV stations and the Indonesian Association for Public Opinion Research (AROPI), was rejected by MK this morning on the grounds that publishing quick count results before all voting stations in the country close could influence voters’ decisions.
“We reject all provisional appeals in their entirety,” MK Chief Anwar Usman ruled in court today, as quoted by Detik.
MK’s ruling effectively upholds current regulations on the publication of election results in accordance with election laws. Under existing laws, quick count results can only be published two hours after voting stations close at 1pm in Western Indonesia.
Historically, quick count results — which are a prediction of official results based on the projection of sample votes in polling stations — accurately reflect the eventual official outcome. There have been few exceptions to the rule in the past, such as in the last presidential election in 2014 when national TV network TVOne projected a Prabowo Subianto victory over President Joko Widodo based on the predictions of their affiliated poll groups.
The General Election Commission (KPU) has urged all polling groups and media outlets to obey MK’s ruling regarding the publication of quick count results. According to the KPU, they have verified 40 polling groups to publish quick count results, including Charta Politika Indonesia, Indo Barometer, Kompas Research and Development, Saiful Mujani Research & Consulting (SMRC), and Indikator Politik Indonesia.
All of Indonesia’s major polling groups, safe for a few outliers, have predicted a comfortable victory for incumbent President Jokowi.
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