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Gus Dur is the key to PKB's success
A political expert from the University of Brawijaya, Malang, Faza Dhora Nailufar, says Rusdi Kirana, co-founder and chief executive of Lion Air, had no significant impact on the National Awakening Partyâs (PKB) performance in the 2014 legislative election
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political expert from the University of Brawijaya, Malang, Faza Dhora Nailufar, says Rusdi Kirana, co-founder and chief executive of Lion Air, had no significant impact on the National Awakening Party's (PKB) performance in the 2014 legislative election.
She said the PKB's vote gain during the legislative poll on April 9 was due to to the return of party members that had fled to other political parties in the previous election.
'It's not significant as none of the PKB grass root supporters knew Rusdi,' said Faza in Jakarta on Thursday as quoted by kompas.com.
Rusdi's financial capacity, she further said, played no significant influence on potential vote-buying, marketing and campaign advertisement spending during the election.
Faza said vote-buying was no longer effective. 'Vote-buying would likely only influence around 15 percent of voters,' said the analyst who is also head of the political sciences and policy engineering laboratory at the university's School of Social and Political Sciences.
Faza said it was former president Abdurrahman 'Gus Dur' Wahid boosted the party's votes. Party sympathizers understood that the PKB was Gus Dur and Gus Dur was the PKB.
'So, even though some of Gus Dur's relatives once campaigned that he was betrayed by the PKB, it did not change the memories and psychological understanding of sympathizers at the grass root level,' she added.
According to Faza, East Java is the main voter base for the PKB. Among the vote barns are regencies and municipalities along the East Java's Tapal Kuda area which include Bondowoso, Gresik, Jember, Madura, Pasuruan, Probolinggo, Situbondo and Sidoarjo regency. (put/ebf)
