Yuliasri Perdani, Jakarta – The electability of Islamic parties is expected to plunge further in the 2014 general election, with major parties like the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) embroiled in a corruption scandal and the National Awakening Party (PKB) being split by a power struggle.

Muslim scholar Azyumardi Azra from Syarif Hidayatullah Islamic State University (UNI) said four Muslim-based political parties eligible to contest the 2014 legislative elections, namely the PKS, the PKB, the United Development Party (PPP) and the National Mandate Party (PAN), would have a hard time convincing voters of their commitment to clean government.

He said the meat importation graft scandal that has implicated former PKS boss Luthfi Hasan Ishaaq would make it difficult for the party to gain support from voters.

"Although the PKS was quick to address the situation, the impact will linger. The party could suffer another blow if any member of its board of patrons is implicated in the case," Azyumardi said, referring to the PKS' chief patron, Hilmi Aminuddin.

Late last month, investigators from the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) questioned Hilmi's fourth son, Ridwan Hakim, over his involvement in the importation graft case.

Azyumardi said the recent victories of PKS candidates in the West Java and North Sumatra gubernatorial elections did not reflect public perception toward the Islamic party.

"The party won because it nominated incumbents. Voters nowadays tend to have emotional connections with candidates rather than political parties," Azyumardi said.

Pollsters had earlier predicted a slump in popularity for Islamic parties in the 2014 general elections.

The Indonesian Survey Circle (LSI) found that, if the general elections had been held in October 2012, major Muslim-based parties, including the PKS, the PKB, PAN and the PPP, would have collectively garnered a mere 21.1 percent of the vote.

Last year, Saiful Mujani Research & Consulting (SMRC) concluded in a survey conducted between Sept. 5 and 16, that the PKS, the PKB and the PPP would only have won 3 percent of the vote, respectively.

PAN would have finished fourth with a meager 2 percent of the vote if an election had taken place during that period. SMRC political consultant Marbawi A. Katon said that Islamic parties would suffer in the 2014 elections as voters were now concerned with party programs and performance.

"Our voters are becoming more rational. Their choices are based on the programs offered by political parties, not their ideology," he said.

The last election also indicated that PAN and the PKB were losing their grip on their traditional support base, Azyurmardi said.

"PAN is losing Muhammadiyah because the party leaders fail to communicate with Muhammadiyah figures," Azyumardi said, referring to the country's second-largest Islamic organization, which provided PAN's original members when the party was founded.

The PKB could no longer count on its affiliation with Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), the country's largest Muslim organization, while the battle to get NU votes had torn the party apart, he said.

"Nahdliyins [NU members] have spread in different directions. Some follow Yenny Wahid, although her political party [the National Archipelago Prosperity Party [PKBN] was disqualified by the KPU. Other NU members have built political careers elsewhere, like Nusron Wahid of the Golkar Party," he said.

Yenny is the daughter of former president and NU leader Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid, while Nusron is the chairman of NU's youth wing, the Ansor Youth Movement (GP Ansor).

Sohibul Iman, PKS politician and deputy speaker at the House of Representatives, said that his party could turn the situation around.

"We still retain our commitment to be a clean political party. As for the one member of our party who is allegedly involved in a graft case, we should wait for the legal process to conclude," he told The Jakarta Post.