After Indonesia’s surprise election, top party hunts for friends

JAKARTA: An unconvincing election win by Indonesia’s main opposition party means it will likely have to seek allies to nominate its candidate for a July presidential vote, increasing the prospect of political uncertainty in Southeast Asia’s biggest economy.

Investor disquiet at the likelihood of lengthy jockeying and a much tougher race to the presidency for the popular candidate of the Indonesian Democratic Party- Struggle ( PDIP) took its toll on Jakarta share prices which were down 3.18 percent by midday.

That is about the same percentage that they jumped after the party announced last month that it was nominating Jakarta governor Joko ‘Jokowi’ Widodo as its candidate for the July 9 presidential election. The rupiah initially slipped but later recovered. Both shares and the rupiah are still around the highest levels since the latter part of 2013.

“The next step for us is to look at which other parties we can cooperate with,” PDI-P vice secretary general Eriko Sotarduga said yesterday.

“We are talking with many parties right now.” The party won just less than 20 per cent of the votes in Wednesday’s parliamentary election, according to initial results, the biggest of any party but below a threshold needed for a party to nominate a presidential candidate on its own.

However, it could be some time before the official result is known and there is still a chance the party will have won enough seats to nominate Jokowi without the help of another party.