REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- The first round of presidential debate held on Thursday (Jan 17) was considered fail to shift voter preferences. Executive Director of Voxpol Center Research and Consulting, Pangi Syarwi Chaniago said the debate did not highlight programs of both candidates in law, terrorism, corruption, and human rights.

Pangi said that the the public was treated to a debate which was less qualified. It also had the impression that the debate only to fulfill the requirements of the law.

"I'm not too sure that there's a shift in preference that people initially prefered to choose Jokowi then crossed to choose Prabowo or vice versa," said Pangi in a written statement on Friday (Jan 18).

He considered the first round of debate to be rigid and unattractive and still far from public expectations. The vision and mission delivered by the two candidates also have not touched the roots of the problems and in fact the two candidates were trapped in a normative general rhetoric.

In terms of implementation, said Pangi, serious efforts had not been seen by making the debate's format to be not rigid. Besides, he saw there were too many rules.

"The first round of presidential debate seems like a quiz, while it is one of campaign methods to achieve its targets, attract people's interest, and educate the public," he said.

Pangi also noted on the performance of the two candidates in the debate. He assesed in terms of mastering the problems, the two candidates were still unable to show their best capacities. According to him, there were several segments where the statements of candidates were not connected, out of contexts, and did not answer the core of the problems.

Second, from the aspect of the programs, Pangi also assessed that the candidates did not offer real ones. In fact, Pangi highlighted Jokowi as an incumbent who looked like a newcomer with new visions.

Third, in terms of communication, Pangi also considered that Jokowi was more emotional than Prabowo's who was more relaxed.

"So, the incumbents were more aggressive, while the newcomers didn't have the burden, so they just enjoyed it," said Pangi.

He also hoped that in the future there would be improvements on debate format which was not rigid and had a sense of intelligence. He urged General Election Commission to evaluate the first round of presidential debate.

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