A survey conducted by the Political Communication Institute (Polcomm Institute) shows that Islamic-based parties could exceed the presidential threshold of 20 percent and nominate their own presidential and vice presidential candidates if they form a coalition in the upcoming election.
Polcomm Institute director Heri Budianto said in Jakarta on Sunday that of the total five political parties contesting the 2014 election, the National Mandate Party (PAN) had the highest electability level, which reached 9.7 percent.
The United Development Party (PPP) ranked second with 9.2 percent of the vote, followed by the National Awakening Party’s (PKB) 6.4 percent; the Prosperous Justice Party’s (PKS) 4.7 percent; and the Crescent Star Party’s (PBB) 4.4 percent.
“If we count the figures, support exceeds 20 percent. Thus, they can nominate their own presidential and vice presidential candidates. They just need to find out the proper figures,” said Heri as quoted bykompas.com.
However, political expert Gun Gun Heryanto disagreed with this conclusion. He said the survey’s results could not be used as a reference because it was conducted on five political parties, not the 12 election-participating parties.
“The number of respondents who did not respond to questions or were abstainers was substantial, reaching 65.6 percent. This means the level of rejection of Islamic parties is still significant,” said Gun Gun.
The survey, which took place between Jan.15 and Feb.15, involved 1,200 respondents in 29 provinces. The survey used a multistage random sampling method with a margin of error of 3.1 percent.
