Jakarta – A survey has revealed that more than half of its respondents have no inclination toward or bond with the political parties that they vote for, indicating that voters are likely to change their preferences at the polls.
According to the survey by Charta Politika research center, 76 percent of respondents said they had no bond with the political party they voted for.
"This shows that political parties do not play any important role in society," Charta Politika political analyst Yunarto Wijaya said on Thursday.
According to Yunarto, the low level of inclination toward political parties was alarming compared to previous years. "In the last three years, the percentage of the country's party identification still reached around 20 percent, while according to this survey, party identification reached only 14 percent. This is a sign that our political system is still primitive and political parties are still unable to impress their image rationally on their constituents," he said.
Moreover, Yunarto added that the political parties in developed countries were voted for mostly because they had a more focused agenda that served their constituents.
"In the US, businessmen will vote for the Republicans because they want better taxes. In Australia, the working class will vote for Labor Party because they are assured that their welfare will be well-maintained. The values offered by the parties match with the needs of voters, unlike the political parties in Indonesia," Yunarto said.
Golkar Party secretary-general Idrus Marham said that the code of ethics of the country's political parties did not place ideology as a main consideration to garner public support.
"The top five political parties are nationalist parties that roughly have the same values to offer and the public vote based on their rationality. Party identity is low in Indonesia," Idrus said.
The survey, which was conducted nationally on July 8-22, also revealed that 59.6 percent of the respondents said they voted for famous figures rather than the party itself.
"Prominent figures still play an important role in the upcoming election, because again the political party itself has no certain agenda and the people depend only on a famous figure rather than on whether their needs or interests would be fulfilled by the party they choose," he said.
According to Democratic Party deputy secretary general Saan Mustopa, the fact that the voters were still voting for figures rather than for parties was encouraging for some parties.
"The public are more interested in legislator candidates. This will, of course, have an impact on the number of votes for those parties with prominent figures," Saan said.
Yunarto added that the behavior of the voters had stagnated, as there were no significant changes in the electability levels of political parties, which was led by Golkar with 18 percent, followed by the Democratic Party with 12.5 percent and the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) with 10.8 percent.
However, the majority of voters – 34.4 percent – were undecided, nearly twice the percentage of Golkar voters, said the survey.
According to this result, the approval rating of the public toward religious-based political parties was low, with a percentage of less than 4 percent for parties like the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS). (nad)