JAKARTA — After an unconvincing election win, Indonesia’s main opposition party has started looking for allies to nominate its candidate for a July presidential vote, heightening concerns of political uncertainty in South-east Asia’s biggest economy.

“The next step for us is to look at which other parties we can cooperate with,” Mr Eriko Sotarduga, Vice-Secretary-General of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), said yesterday.

“We are talking with many parties right now.”

Initial results show the PDI-P won almost 19 per cent of the votes in Wednesday’s parliamentary election, the most by any party.

However, parties must win at least 25 per cent of the national vote or 20 per cent of seats in the 560-seat Parliament before they can nominate candidates for President or Vice-President. The failure to get past these thresholds will force political parties to form coalitions.

The formal result of the legislative election will be announced in early May and the PDI-P could still win enough seats to nominate the popular Jakarta Governor, Mr Joko Widodo, without the help of another party.

“It’s important to say that we’re not going to build a coalition just based on transactional politics; for example, they give us their support and we give them something in return,” Mr Sotarduga said.

“We also don’t want to build a big coalition because we’ve seen for the last few years that a big coalition with too many partners can be very ineffective.” He was referring to the broad coalition government of outgoing President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, which has been widely criticised for ineffective leadership and whose ruling Democratic Party saw its votes halved on Wednesday.

Ten parties qualified for seats in Parliament, opening up the possibility of various coalitions.

“It’s going to be weeks before we see any conclusive data,” said political analyst Kevin Evans, though he predicted the PDI-P would be able to put Mr Widodo forward for president without help.

Investor disquiet at a possibly tougher race to the presidency took its toll on Jakarta shares, which were down 3.34 per cent by the close.

The parliamentary votes were also more evenly spread across the parties than expected, meaning a more fragmented Parliament, which could hamper policy in a country seen as repeatedly failing to live up to its economic potential.

One party happy with Wednesday’s vote is Gerindra, headed by former General Prabowo Subianto, whose reputation has been tarnished by allegations of human rights abuses during his military days.

The showing by his party makes him a serious contender for the presidential post if he manages to find support from other parties.

“We are very confident ... We went from 4.5 per cent to 12 per cent. That’s a 300 per cent jump,” said Gerindra Vice-Chairman Fadli Zon, referring to the party’s improvement over its showing in the last election in 2009.

“So it’s possible that it will be a very tough competition between Gerindra and PDI-P from now on. The presidential race is definitely a two-horse race,” he said, adding he doubted the two former allies would join forces again.

Mr Prabowo was equally upbeat and told local media that “with this result, I am very, very optimistic about becoming President. I’m just an inch away.”

Most analysts say the presidential election is still Mr Widodo’s to lose. A survey on April 2 showed support for the Jakarta Governor stood at 45 per cent, well above his closest rival, Mr Prabowo, at 15 per cent.

However, Wednesday’s results have led some analysts to suggest that the presidential vote could be forced to go into a second round. AGENCIES