With just over a month to go before the April 17 election, the leader of an Islamic party in the ruling coalition has been arrested on graft charges, which analysts say could affect President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s reelection bid.

M. Romahurmuziy, the chairman of the United Development Party (PPP), was apprehended by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) on Friday morning in relation to a corruption case concerning staffing at the Religious Affairs Ministry and its regional offices.

The politician, who is also a lawmaker in the House of Representatives, was arrested along with four other suspects, who are ministry officials and private sector employees, in different raids in East Java, KPK spokesman Febri Diansyah said.

During the operations, the antigraft body also seized a sum of money, which was allegedly exchanged in connection with the staffing case, he said.

“We suspect that numerous transactions occurred between individuals not employed by the government and government officials in the Religious Affairs Ministry,” Febri told reporters on Friday.

He said he could not yet publicly disclose the nature of the charges as a preliminary investigation into the case was still ongoing.

However, KPK chairman Agus Raharjo said the case was related to bribery concerning job promotion at the ministry and that the antigraft body had been investigating the case “for a long time”.

Later in the afternoon, Romahurmuziy and the four other suspects, as well as an additional person identified as a staff member of a House member, were brought in by the KPK for further questioning.

The investigation comes just weeks away from voting day for the simultaneous presidential and legislative elections, with political parties preparing for the three-week political campaign period that will start on March 24.

The PPP, the nation’s oldest Islamic party, is part of a coalition of parties that have thrown their support behind Jokowi and his running mate, Muslim cleric Ma’ruf Amin, who are facing Prabowo Subianto and running mate Sandiaga Uno in the election.

The Jokowi-Ma’ruf campaign team has insisted the investigation would not have an impact on the pair’s electability, arguing that it would only impact the PPP chairman personally.

“The [case] has no connection to the presidential election at all,” Jokowi’s campaign team chairman Erick Thohir said.

However, Vice President Jusuf Kalla, who is also the head of the steering committee of Jokowi’s campaign team, said the case could affect the campaign team.

“The most-affected party will certainly be the PPP,” he said.

Political analysts have said the case could affect the incumbent’s electability and his image, particularly because the public considered corruption to be a major issue.

It was inevitable the public would associate Romahurmuziy with Jokowi, particularly as the politician was known as a close ally of the incumbent, political researcher Arya Fernandes from the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) said.

“This scandal poses a risk because it has arisen before voting day and if it goes even more viral, it could damage Jokowi’s image because the PPP has been a die-hard supporter [of his reelection bid],” he told the Post.

Hendri Satrio, a political communication expert from Paramadina University, concurred with Arya, saying that the Jokowi-Ma’ruf campaign team “should know how to rebound” to prevent damage to the incumbent’s reelection chances.

However, the damage could be greater for the PPP than Jokowi, as the party currently faces a tough contest in the legislative election, especially after the minimum parliamentary threshold was raised to 4 percent of the national vote this year from 3.5 percent in 2014.

A survey by Kompas Research and Development in October concluded that based on the party’s electability rating, which remains below 4 percent, the PPP was among the five of the 10 older parties that would struggle to win seats in the House.

“This scandal will make it more difficult for the PPP’s legislative candidates to campaign,” Arya said. (mai)

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