Golkar misses target in South Sulawesi elections

Golkar misses target in South Sulawesi elections

Andi Hajramurni, The Jakarta Post, Makassar

The Golkar Party has proved its strength in national legislative
elections, but that does not necessarily mean that it will always
also be victorious in local elections.

During the direct local elections here on June 27, the former
ruling party only managed to secure victories for five out of the
10 tickets it was running.

Having only got five of its stalwarts into office, the party
missed its target of emerging victorious in all 10 regencies and
municipalities in the province, which had been a Golkar
stronghold for years. Worse still, only one of the tickets
nominated solely by Golkar was elected, while the part had to
work together with other parties in order to ensure the victory
of the four other tickets.

The ticket that was nominated solely by Golkar consisted of
Najmuddin Amirullah and Andi Paharuddin from Maros regency.

The decline in the parties support has worried Golkar leaders
as it has always emerged as the largest party in national
legislative elections in the province. Last year, the party
collected 42 percent of the total vote in the national
legislative elections in the province, while in 1999 it took 66.7
percent of the vote. Before the onset of reform in 1998, the
Golkar Party consistently took over 60 percent of the total vote.

Commenting on Golkar's poor showing this time around, a senior
party leader in South Sulawesi, Mohammad Roem, said that the
party would evaluate why it had only managed to get five pairs of
nominees elected, and not 10 as it had earlier targeted. He said
that such an evaluation was badly needed as there would be 13
more local elections, including the gubernatorial election, in
the province in 2008.

Roem said that Golkar would learn from its mistakes and would
be more selective with its candidates in the future. Currently,
the voters were no longer voting for parties, but rather for
personalities.

The party's famous name is no longer a major selling point in
elections. What is now most important is the candidates running
in the elections, Roem explained.

"In the future, we will have to pick candidates that are
acceptable to the public and whose quality has been proven," he
said.

He also called on party leaders not to be selfish. He found
that in many cases Golkar Party bosses in the regions demanded
that they be nominated to stand in elections, even if questions
hung over their abilities or integrity.

Commenting on this trend, he suggested that local party
leaders should objective. If there were no party candidates
worthy of nomination, the party leaders should nominate other
candidates who were acceptable to the public.

He also said that in the future the Golkar Party would have to
be more open-minded and willing to enter into electoral pacts
with other parties.

"We will have to adopt new perspectives and strategies in
order to win more elections in the future," said Roem, who headed
South Sulawesi's Golkar campaign team during the local elections.