Jakarta – The Democratic Party would likely suffer a serious defeat in 2014 and garner only 11 percent of the vote if the election were held today, according to an opinion poll released by the Indonesian Survey Circle (LSI).

Golkar Party would likely benefit at the Democratic Party's expense and emerge as the winner in 2014 with 20.9 percent of the vote, the LSI said. The survey, conducted between June 2 and June 11, had 1,200 respondents in all 33 provinces.

Respondents had a perception that the Democratic Party had become a party of graft suspects, dissuading them from supporting the party, the LSI said.

The survey recorded the lowest approval rating for the Democratic Party in the past 18 months. In January 2011, the LSI said that 20.5 percent of respondents backed the Democratic Party, which slipped to 15.3 percent by June 2011 before bottoming out at 13.7 percent in January this year.

"If the trend continues, it will be difficult for Democratic Party to keep its No. 1 position in the 2014 election," LSI researcher Adjie Alfaraby told reporters at a press conference on Sunday. Adjie said that it would be very difficult for the Democratic Party to change its image as the party of graft.

"From the focus group discussions conducted simultaneously with the survey, we found that respondents have been disappointed by the graft cases that have dogged politicians from the party," Adjie said.

Adjie said that the party had not purged itself of members and senior leaders involved – or even convicted – in graft cases.

Earlier this year, for example, former Democratic Party treasurer Muhammad Nazaruddin was sentenced to almost five years' imprisonment for accepting a Rp 4.6 billion (US$492,200) bribe in the Southeast Asian Games construction scandal.

Another Democratic Party lawmaker, Angelina Sondakh, was named a suspect in the same case, while party chairman Anas Urbaningrum and party bigwig and Youth and Sports Minister Andi Mallarangeng have also been implicated in the scandal.

A majority of respondents said they were disappointed with the performance of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, especially with his reticence in taking action against Muslim hard-liners involved in suppression of freedom of speech and in violent attacks on Ahmadiyah.

The poor performance of the Democratic Party was matched by a rise in the prospects of the Golkar Party, which was backed by 20.9 percent of respondents. Golkar was far ahead of its closest competitor, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), which was backed by 14 percent of respondents.

A separate opinion poll conducted by the Soegeng Sarjadi Syndicate (SSS) between May 14 and 24 reported similar results, with Golkar backed by 23 percent of respondents, the PDI-P by 19.6 percent and the Democratic Party in third with 10.7 percent.

Contacted separately, Democratic Party spokesperson Andi Nurpati said that it was too premature to make such predictions. "We have nothing to worry about. We have our own election strategy that we will deploy as the election nears. Our focus right now is to support the President's government," she said. (aml)