Mafoot Simon – In this Indonesian city of almost 1,000 Islamic religious schools, it comes as no surprise that the Muslim parties will slug it out for votes in April's legislative election.

But their aim is not to win the vote of the man in the street but the hearts of the religious leaders. The reason is obvious: Earn the support of these leaders and you automatically win the support of their legions of students.

Regent Tatang P Hakim revealed just how important the role of these religious leaders is when he spoke of the religious schools, known as pesantren. "Just imagine. One thousand pesantren," he said. "How many ulama and their students there are!"

Official figures are not available but every Muslim here attends a religious school either full or part time – a link that continues for life – and Muslims form 99 per cent of the estimated 634,000 voters.

Thus, both the Islamic United Development Party (PPP) and the Justice Party (PKS) are working on building further their relationship with the religious leaders.

Some religious leaders are already actively involved in activities such as running party branches, said PPP secretary Didin Badrudin, 54. In fact, some are even contesting this election on his party's ticket, he added.

But the local leader of the PKS, Mr Ahmad Agus Subagio, said religious leaders have agreed to give the PKS their "moral support".

The party, which believes in leading by example, such as refusing bribes, is confident that students of the religious schools will help it during the campaign period, which begins on March 11, as they did during the 1999 election.

The nationalist Golkar party does not seem overly concerned by the moves of the Islamic parties, however. It has planted its own partisan religious leaders in its main rival, the PPP, who have been feeding back information about PPP strategies.

In fact, nine out of 45 of the candidates nominated to contest the election on the PPP ticket are members of Golkar, revealed Mr Asep Nurjani, 30, the party's secretary.

Both the PPP and Golkar do not consider other political parties to be serious rivals, "not even PAN", Mr Asep said in a rather smug reference to Dr Amien Rais' National Mandate Party. That includes President Megawati Sukarnoputri's Indonesian Democratic Party Struggle (PDI-P).

During a break in their meeting at the City Hall here, a group of its leaders were openly despondent about their party's prospects in the coming election. "We have only one objective now: To make sure Ms Megawati wins the presidential election in July," they said.

They declined to explain the reasons for their pessimism but The Straits Times understands that some new rules introduced for the legislative election this year may pose problems for the PDI-P.

So it should boil down to a fight between the PPP and Golkar, one so fierce that Mr Asep said the two parties might choose to form some kind of a coalition to win the election.

While the political parties mull over strategies for winning the election, voters are agonising over which way to cast their votes.

Trishaw rider Asrof, 67, is one of them. "Yes, I must vote. I want to vote but I'm not sure who deserves my vote," he said.

The energetic old man, who decided to pedal trishaws "to keep fit" after he retired from his job as a driver, said the big question for him and other trishaw riders was: "Who can help me?" "From our past experience, we are not sure who can really help us," he said, adding that to him all political parties are the same.

With a grin, he said he and some fellow trishaw riders might just spoil their votes.

Another concern of ordinary people, not just in Tasikmalaya but elsewhere in the West Java region beyond Jakarta, is the soaring prices of necessities. The cost of rice and kerosene has gone up several times since the last election in 1999.

"I can't cook without kerosene even if I have rice. I can't cook even if I have kerosene but not rice. I need both but often I can't afford either," said Madam Dede, 50, a shopkeeper. What makes it worse, said farmer Safruddin, 37, is that fertiliser is also expensive.

With such immediate pressing concerns, voters might just base their decision on their own immediate needs.

In fact, a survey last December found that the ideology of political parties – whether they are Islamic or nationalist – had little impact on how people would vote.

Another survey, conducted last August, found that 58 per cent of those polled did not identify themselves with any party.

Chances are, said some of those interviewed, the key to who will win the election might well be what is known here as "serangan fajar" or attack at dawn.

This is when, they explained, the parties begin distributing basic necessities – and money – to voters at dawn, right after the first of five Muslim daily prayers.

Referring to trishaw rider Asrof, a Priangan journalist, Mr Bambang, 40, observed: "Some of the trishaw riders are already saying 'I will vote for whoever gives me the most'."