Anas wants Yudhoyono to perform better

JAKARTA: Embattled Democratic Party chairman Anas Urbaningrum said that the party could only improve its image if President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono could show better performance.

Responding to the findings in the opinion poll that showed that the Democratic Party had hit a new low, Yudhoyono said that the slump could be attributed to his lackluster performance in office.

Anas laid out six strategies on Monday for the party to improve its standing among the electorates.

“First, the administration of President Yudhoyono, who is also the chief patron of the party, has to improve its performance so that the people could be more satisfied,” Anas said in a statement.

A survey conducted by the Indonesian Survey Circle (LSI) released on Sunday found that the Democratic Party would likely suffer a serious defeat in 2014 and garner only 11 percent of the vote if the election were held today.

The survey recorded the lowest approval rating for the Democratic Party in the past 18 months. In January 2011, the LSI said that 20.5 percent of respondents backed the Democratic Party, which slipped to 15.3 percent by June 2011 before bottoming out at 13.7 percent in January this year.

Respondents had the perception that the Democratic Party had become a party of graft suspects, dissuading them from supporting the party,

There has been a growing movement within the party to oust Anas from his post because of his alleged involvement in a number of graft cases.