Desy Nurhayati – With the exception of several major parties and one or two new parties, most parties contesting in the April 9 legislative elections do not have a strategy to woo voters, nor do they have programs to offer voters, a new survey has found.
The survey by the Indonesian Parliamentary Monitoring Forum (Formappi) on 37 out of 38 parties competing in the elections found that only five parties were considered to be prepared in terms of internal organization, with established boards of executives in all 33 provinces and municipalities nationwide.
Executive Director of Formappi Sebastian Salang said the only five parties prepared are the Democratic Party, the Golkar Party, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), the People's Conscience Party (Hanura) and the National Mandate Party (PAN).
"Only 15 of 37 parties have comprehensive programs to offer, while the other 22 have only point programs on certain issues," Sebastian said. He added that only one party offered affirmative programs for disabled people.
The survey also highlighted the fact that only three parties have a comprehensive strategy to attract voters. A comprehensive strategy is defined as one that has a national figure as an icon, has programs on a wide range of issues, has set up a special team for elections, as well one that combines networks and financial support. They also make the most of mass media.
"The three parties are the Democratic Party, Hanura and the Greater Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra)," Sebastian said.
"Four other parties also provided comprehensive programs, but they do not rely on prominent figures as their icons. They are Golkar, the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), the PAN and the Indonesian Prosperous Party (PIS)," he said.
Concerning their targets of garnering votes, only two parties are upbeat that they would be able to gain more than 25 percent of votes. They are the country's two largest parties, Golkar and the PDI-P, which each seek to gain 30 percent of votes.
Ten parties have set their targets at between 10 and 25 percent while 14 parties predict they will manage to garner between 2.5 and 10 percent of votes. The remaining 11 parties will be satisfied if they can pass the 2.5 percent parliamentary threshold.
According to the election law, each party contesting the elections must garner at least 2.5 percent of the total valid votes nationwide to qualify for a House seat.
To be able to nominate a candidate for the presidential election, a party or a coalition must gain at least 25 percent of votes or 20 percent of House seats.
Commenting on the survey results, election analyst Jeirry Sumampouw said that the parties' readiness would mean nothing for the people if they failed to carry out their programs if they are successful in the election.
He added that with the Constitutional Courts ruling on awarding seats to candidates who win the most votes, legislative candidates will focus on campaigning for themselves in their respective electoral districts, rather than campaigning for their parties.