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or the first time since the 2009 general elections, the Democratic Party has fallen to second place in a nationwide popularity survey, mainly due to graft allegations surrounding former party treasurer Mohammad Nazaruddin.

In the survey conducted by the Indonesian Survey Circle (LSI), only 15.5 percent of respondents expressed support for the Democratic Party, a 5 percent drop from the 20.5 percent of votes the party garnered in the 2009 elections.

In an earlier survey by the Indonesian Survey Institute, 18.9 percent of respondents chose the Democratic Party.

“This proves that the furore surrounding the Nazaruddin [graft scandal] has wreaked considerable damage on the image and the electability of the Democratic Party, as this is the first time since 2009 that the party hasn’t come out on top in our survey,” LSI founder Denny JA said on Sunday.

The survey showed that the 5 percent of respondents shifted their allegiance away from the Democratic Party to the Golkar Party, which topped the survey with 17.9 percent of respondents.

“People shifted their support mostly to Golkar as it has similar values with the Democratic Party, in that both are neither too nationalistic like the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle [PDI-P], nor too religious like the Prosperous Justice Party [PKS] or United Development Party [PPP],” Denny said.

The PDI-P was the third most popular party among respondents at 14.5 percent. Golkar and the PDI-P won 14.45 percent and 14.04 percent of the votes respectively in 2009.

Denny said the gap between the top three parties was too small to be truly significant and were within the survey’s 2.9 percent margin of error.

“This means Golkar is not definitively the most popular party. That honor is actually up for grabs between the three parties,” Denny said.

The LSI questioned 1,200 respondents across Indonesia between June 1 and June 7 this year for the survey.

The LSI said 502 of the respondents said they had heard of the corruption case at the Youth and Sports Ministry, in which Nazaruddin is implicated.

Almost half of the respondents said they believed Democratic Party elites were involved in graft, while 494 respondents said the Democratic Party should have been firmer in handling the case, with only 271 saying the party’s handling was firm enough.

The LSI said 508 respondents said the graft scandal would influence their decision to vote for the party in the 2014 elections, while 130 respondents said otherwise.

Denny said that if not handled properly, it was possible the Nazaruddin scandal could further slash his party’s popularity.

“It is not impossible that the Nazaruddin case can bring down the party and shrink it back to a middle-tier, or even a bottom-tier, party.”

Democratic Party executive Hinca Panjaitan said the survey results should serve as a wake-up call.

“The survey is a mirror through which the Democratic Party may see its flaws and shortcomings. It is a wake-up call for us to clean up our act and improve ourselves,” he said. “We are certain we can get through this.”

Nazaruddin is allegedly involved in a bribery case surrounding a SEA Games construction project in Palembang, South Sumatra. (mim)