Ezra Sihite – The Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) remained bullish about its 2014 electoral prospects on Thursday despite a new survey indicating it had been relegated to the periphery of Indonesian politics.

A poll by PDB released on Wednesday showed that 1.2 percent of the electorate would vote for the PKS at the next election, but Minister of Communication and Information Titaful Sembiring, who is also a member of the PKS's consultative council, said the party was unmoved by the poll and would continue to target a 15 percent share of the vote in 2014.

"[We're] optimistic, it's our target," Tifatul said, adding that the party would not be drawn on whom it would field as a presidential candidate next year. In the 2009 election, the PKS received 7.9 percent of the vote, up from 7.3 percent in 2004.

The party has been damaged by a wide-ranging scandal in which several of the party faithful are alleged to have conspired to rig the awarding of a government contract for importing beef.

"The PKS is declining because the corruption cases were considered significant by the respondents," PDB head Didik J. Rachbini said, as quoted by the Jawa Pos news portal on Wednesday.

In the previous survey conducted by PDB, in January 2013, the party fared slightly better, with a predicted 2.9 percent showing on the national stage.

The beef-import corruption case is still ongoing at the Jakarta Anti Corruption Court. No suspects have been convicted.

PDB interviewed 1,200 respondents between June 11 to 18 across Indonesia. PDB is a market-research company owned by Lippo Group, which is also the parent company of the Jakarta Globe.