Although its popularity has plunged following a series of graft allegations implicating its members, the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) is confident it will garner enough votes to nominate its own presidential candidate in the 2014 race. Later this week, the Muslim-based party is set to hold a presidential primary where 22 politicians from within the party will vie for the party’s nomination. “The 22 candidates were proposed by PKS members from all over the country,” PKS chairman Anis Matta, who is also among the 22 hopefuls, said on Monday. Other candidates in the race include Social Affairs Minister Salim Segaf Al Jufri; Communications and Information Minister Tifatul Sembiring; West Java Governor Ahmad Heryawan; North Sumatra Governor Gatot Pujo Nugroho, and West Sumatra Governor Irwan Prayitno, as well as the party’s secretary-general, Taufik Ridlo, and House of Representatives members Fahri Hamzah, Nasir Jamil, Hidayat Nur Wahid and Mahfudz Siddiq. Fahri and Taufik, however, later announced that they would not be joining the race. Taufik argued that as head of the party’s committee tasked with organizing the primary, he had a conflict of interest. Unlike the presidential convention currently underway within President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s Democratic Party, where the most popular candidates will be decided by a public opinion poll, some 1 million PKS members nationwide will directly cast their votes to determine who will be nominated as the party’s presidential candidate. “The winner will then be named the presidential candidate by the party’s patron assembly,” Taufik said. The party’s presidential candidate was expected to be announced by the end of this year, he added. In the PKS presidential primary, candidates are not allowed to campaign. Analysts, however, doubt the PKS’ presidential primary will improve the party’s standing among voters. “I don’t think the PKS will be able to nominate its own presidential candidate,” Indo Barometer executive director Muhammad Qodari said. “There is the ‘Fathanah effect’, which has dragged down the PKS’ electability,” Qodari said, referring to Ahmad Fathanah, aide to former PKS chairman Luthfi Hasan Ishaaq, who was recently sentenced to 14 years’ imprisonment by the Jakarta Corruption Court for his role in the beef import case. Luthfi, who was arrested along with Fathanah by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) for the same case, is currently standing trial at the same court. Numerous public opinion polls have predicted that support for the PKS would plunge in the 2014 legislative election. A survey by the Indonesia Research Center (IRC), the results of which were released in June, put the PKS in seventh position on a list of the most electable political parties. The survey also found that the PKS would only get 2.8 percent of the vote if the legislative election had been held at the time the survey was carried out. This figure is far lower than the 7.99 percent of votes the party secured in the 2009 election, making it the fourth-largest faction in the House. “The best possible result that the PKS could achieve in 2014 would be to gain the same amount of votes it secured in 2009,” Qodari said. Political parties are required to obtain a minimum 25 percent of the nationwide vote to be entitled to nominate a presidential candidate without forming a coalition, as stipulated under the 2008 Presidential Election Law. “It would be better for the PKS to name a vice presidential candidate, instead. It looks as though the PKS will have to form a coalition with another party with more votes; if so, they will name their own presidential candidate,” he added.
Posted on: Tue, 26 Nov 2013 07:30:02 +0000
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