REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA - Director of Public Opinion & Policy Research - Populi Center Usep S. Ahyar said that voters could not be associated with certain political parties merely based on their religions. He stated that to respond the latest survey of the Indonesian Survey Circle (LSI) Denny JA which said PDIP was superior among Muslim voters.

"Actually, I don't think it can (be associated) based on religion, because this party does not have a differentiator in a very extreme religious context," he said when contacted by Republika.co.id on Thursday (Feb 21).

According to him, parties in Indonesia actually did not have a significant difference in terms of reaping votes from various types of voters. He said that a number of parties also accommodated voters outiside their bases.

"For example, PDIP as the nationalist also established Baitul Muslimin, while PKS as the party established based on religion also accommodate non-Muslim voters in eastern regions," Usep said.

Usep explained, Muslim voters in Indonesia could not be associated with specific political parties, because the scope was too broad. However, voters from certain Islamic organizations can be associated with certain political parties.

"For example, Muhammadiyah, FPI, and KAHMI have their own tendency in choosing political parties," Usep said.

Even so, Usep said, religion-based parties still have the potential to gain quite a lot of votes. Because, the majority of religious-based parties have support bases and also targeted other groups of voters.

"The point is that they are approaching all sides, there are nationalists who are still religious. Some are religious, but they are also nationalists," Usep said.

Previously, the Indonesian Survey Circle (LSI) Denny JA said PDIP electability among Muslim voters was still superior. The party received a vote of 18.4 percent. Gerindra Party was in second place, with 16.6 percent.

Whereas religious-based parties such as PKB ranked fourth (9.3 percent) followed by PKS at seventh (4.6 percent). Meanwhile, PPP was under PKS, with a gain of 4.1 percent. Finally, there was PAN which was ranked 10th, with 1.6 percent.

The survey was conducted from January 18 to 25, 2019 involving 1,200 respondents. The survey was conducted in 34 provinces in Indonesia with a multistage random sampling method. Interviews were conducted face-to-face using questionnaires. The margin of errors for this survey was 2.8 percent.

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