Rise of PKS, PD 'result of more political awareness'
Eva C. Komandjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The emergence of the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) and the Democratic Party as the two parties that have garnered the most votes for the Jakarta City Council has come as something of a surprise.
As of 8:30 p.m. on Friday, the PKS had taken 894,801 votes, or around 23.15 percent of the overall vote, followed by the Democratic party with 781,860 votes, or 20.23 percent, according to the provisional results issued by the General Elections Commissions (KPU).
The PKS, which contested the 1999 elections under the name of the Justice Party (PK), only got four seats on the council back then. As for the Democratic Party, this is the first year it has contested the election.
Sociologist Paulus Wirutomo told The Jakarta Post that the fact that the PKS and Democratic Party had emerged seemingly out of nowhere was a reflection of the public's political awareness and intelligence.
"People living in urban areas, even the uneducated, have begun to realize that the government does bad things to them, such as carrying out evictions. They know that they have to pick other alternatives such as the PKS or the Democratic Party," he said.
"People see the PKS as being the one party that is well organized, highly disciplined, able to work as a team and which has spirited party members. They are tireless going door to door campaigning for their party."
Paulus also said that most of the two parties' voters were not bound to the parties, and many were swing voters. However, he said that this was a sign that Indonesian people were becoming more rational in selecting who to vote for.
"This attitude is definitely a good sign. These political parties realize that their voters will turn to other parties if they don't keep their promises in government," he said.
Therefore, he added, these parties would try hard to secure their positions by performing well so that their voters would not desert them.
Paulus further explained that while there were still many traditional voters in urban areas, the majority of these were found in rural areas. If they voted for a particular party in previous elections, they would vote for that party again.
This is what happened to the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), which currently dominates the city council with 29 seats.
"The PDI-P is definitely a strong party with a lot of money. Therefore, they can easily win support from the people," he said.
The KPU online ballot count stated that 75-year-old cosmetics businesswoman Mooryati Soedibyo still topped the Regional Representative Council (DPD) poll with 442,031 votes.
She was followed by veteran politician Sarwono Kusumaatmadja with 431,363 votes, native Jakartan (Betawi) radio entrepreneur Biem Triani Benyamin with 340,485 votes and Marwan Batubara in the fourth place with 299,737 votes.