Support for Islamic Parties Continues to Decline in Indonesia

In Indonesia, Muslims constitute 86% of the population. However, why have Islamic parties never become the party with the most support in various elections, even when Islamic parties are merged into one?

Over time, their complete support has declined. Islamic parties, including Masyumi, Nahdlatul Ulama, PERTI, and others, received 43.90 percent of the vote in the 1955 election. At that time, their support remained above 40 percent.

In the 2019 election, the total support for Islamic parties dropped to 29.76%, which is below 30%. At that time, the Islamic parties were PKB, PKS PAN, and PPP. These four political parties exist to this day.

As of August 2023, based on a survey by LSI Denny J.A, support for Islamic parties dropped again to 23.10%. In the three eras of elections since 1955, support has been above 40%, but it has fallen below 30% in 2019. And now, in 2023, it has dropped to below 25%. Furthermore, support for nationalist parties continues to grow.

Importantly, since the era of the New Order, Pancasila or P4 has been implemented as the sole ideology. Over the course of many years, Pancasila has been extensively and methodically socialized, resulting in a new political culture. In spite of the large number of devout Muslims in Indonesia, the majority of its politics are significantly influenced by nationalism and diversity. Consequently, nationalist parties provide nationalist political platforms more often. Therefore, support for Islamic parties is declining in Indonesia, the largest country with a Muslim majority.

---

A survey was conducted on 1,200 respondents on a national scale with multi-stage random sampling. The margin of error is 2.9%

***

Ekspresi Data Denny J.A, 2023