Jakarta. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s ailing Democratic Party is targeting 15 percent of the seats in the House of Representatives after next month’s legislative elections, the party’s managing chairman said.
“We’re ready to fight,” said managing chairman Syarief Hassan. “The [party's] consolidation is already complete, so we don’t have any problems anymore.”
A recent poll suggests that Yudhoyono’s ruling party may be able to weather a series of high-profile corruption cases that sent public perception of the once-favored party into free-fall, Syarief Hassan explained.
The Democratic Party appointed the Saiful Mujani Research & Consulting group to conduct a pre-election poll. The findings determined that the ruling party came in third behind the Golkar Party and the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P). The PDI-P led the poll with 16 percent, while Golkar came in with 15 percent and the Democratic Party with 10.6 percent, according to Syarief.
“The margins are not too large,” he said.
The poll was a small improvement over previous reports that saw the Democratic Party polling in the single digits. A December 2021 poll by the same organization found the party’s electability at 8.3 percent. The party now believe it can net 15 percent of the seats.
“We’re targeting 15 percent,” Syarief said. “We might have to work hard but it’s our objective for the 2014 elections.”
The goal, if achieved, would still place the below the 25 percent threshold to field a candidate in the presidential election without establishing a coalition of support. The party is currently part of a ruling coalition that includes the Golkar Party, the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) and the National Mandate Party (PAN).
The Democratic Party has embarked on a highly publicized convention to pick its presidential candidate. Several contenders have entered the debates, including Gita Wirjawan, Dahlan Iskan and Dino Patti Djalal. Yudhoyono’s brother-in-law Pramono Edhie Wibowo, the former Army chief of staff, has also emerged as a favored candidate.
The nation’s opposition party, the PDI-P, leads most polls with the wildly popular Jakarta Governor Joko Widodo a clear favorite. Joko has not said whether he will run in the election.
The Democratic Party took the 2009 presidential and legislative elections with landslide wins but its electability has suffered in recent years after several high-profile corruption cases all but gutted its most prominent members.
Source/Fuente: http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/news/democratic-party-targets-15-percent-...
