Anita Rachman, Jakarta – Islamic parties need to start preparing as early as this year for the 2014 elections to keep from losing more votes to secular rivals, an analyst said on Wednesday.

Kacung Maridjan, a political analyst from Surabaya's Airlangga University, said Islamic parties had seen a serious drop in support from the time of the New Order regime until the most recent elections in 2009.

In 2009, he said political parties based on Islamic values garnered less than 28 percent of the total vote.

The Islam-based United Development Party (PPP) by itself accounted for the same share of the vote in 1977.

"Muslims in this country have this principle: 'Islam, yes! Islamic parties, not necessarily.' It's related to their performance," he said.

"There have been some significant declines that must be tackled by Islamic political parties in the country. They must boost their performance."

Three secular parties topped the 2009 polls – the ruling Democratic Party, Golkar Party, and the opposition Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P). They were followed by four Islamic-based political parties, the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), the National Mandate Party (PAN), PPP and the National Awakening Party (PKB).

Kacung said in the 1955 election, Islamic parties garnered 43 percent of all votes. "In 1999 it still stood at 37 percent, and 38 percent in 2004, but in [2009], it was less than 28 percent," he said.

If Islamic political parties don't want to see this trend continue in 2014, he added, they should answer the call to improve immediately by recruiting more influential figures, stronger leadership and finding enough funding.

"In 2009, Islamic political parties only had small fund/capital and they don't have a magnet to attract people, like the late Gus Dur with PKB," he said, referring to the PKB founder and former President Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid.

Speaking separately, M. Romahurmuziy, secretary general of the PPP, acknowledged that some Islam-based parties have been suffering from a serious decline in votes largely because of internal conflicts.

"It seems that people leave conflicted Islam-based parties more easily, rather than leave conflicted nationalist-secular parties," he said. "The punishment is terrible, the number of seats [in the legislative] is getting smaller."

The PKB, for instance, has been beset by conflict since 2004, when Gus Dur dismissed Muhaimin Iskandar as the party's secretary general after an internal spat.

Muhaimin contested his dismissal in court and won. He organized a congress that elected him as chairman and the government recognized his camp as the official bearer of the party name.

However, a faction of followers loyal to Gus Dur led by his daughter Yenny Wahid is still trying to consolidate the party.

But Romahurmuziy believed Islamic parties would learn from history and do better come 2014. He also said PPP was positioning itself as "a huge Islamic political home" in Indonesia. He hoped it would be a turning point for Islam-based parties.

However, PKS chairman Luthfi Hasan Ishaq said the decline in votes was not a trend limited to Islamic parties alone, citing the fact that both Golkar and PDI-P in 2009 received less support than before. "It's just not our problem, not only Islamic parties," he said.

With the ruling Democrats grabbing the biggest share in the last poll, he said all other parties should figure out a response.

But he added that the political situation might be different by the next national elections. "So it depends on how we see the situation today, and what it will be in the next poll," he said.