Indonesian Islamic Parties at Crucial Crossroads

The Jakarta Globe:

Two recent opinion polls caused a stir in Indonesia when they predicted that none of the major Islamic political parties would remain among the top five parties in the 2014 general election.

In a survey done last month, the Indonesian Survey Circle (LSI) painted a bleak picture for the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), the National Awakening Party (PKB), the National Mandate Party (PAN) and the United Development Party (PPP).

If elections were held today, each of the four parties would garner less than 5 percent of the vote and Islamic parties collectively would gather a total of only 21.1 percent of the popular vote.

The top five are Golkar with 21 percent of the vote, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) with 17.2 percent, the Democratic Party with 14 percent, and two newer secular parties — the Gerindra party with 5.2 percent, and the newly founded National Democratic Party with 5 percent.

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