"We have observed participation continued to drop drastically in the last three legislative elections meaning the number of absentees have sharply risen," the researcher, Burhanuddin Muhtadi, said at the parliament building here on Thursday.
He said LSI observed the trend based upon survey results done in the 1999 legislative elections when the number of absentees was recorded at only 6.3 percent but increased to around 16 percent in 2004 and 29.1 percent in the 2009 legislative elections.
He said the drop in the number of absentees had been very sharp in the past three legislative elections.
By comparison in the advanced countries especially the US that apply democratic system the 40 percent rise in the number of absentees was achieved after around 200 years but "in Indonesia the rise has already reached 29 percent only within 12 years` time," he said.
The LSI director said public behavior in Indonesia was strange as while on the one hand they still believe in democracy but on the other hand their trust in political parties keeps declining.
Regarding politicians that are involved in legal cases and are currently being tried Burhan said the situation has helped reduce public trust in political parties.
It has also given people difficulties in deciding their presidential candidates for the election later, he said.
He said based on LSI survey on presidential candidates published on Thursday former president Megawati Soekarnoputri was ranked first collecting 15.2 percent points public confidence in her commitment to corruption eradication was recorded below 50 percent.
"Old figures still emerged as new figures have not done anything and some have even been implicated in corruption case to make their electability low," he said. (*)
Editor: Kunto Wibisono
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