JAKARTA — While Indonesia’s Islamic parties surprisingly won more votes than in the previous election, it was the moderate parties which did better than the conservative ones, allaying concerns about a more fundamental Islamic presence in Indonesian politics.

The better-than-expected performance by Islamic parties in Wednesday’s parliamentary election is due largely to a strong showing by the moderate National Awakening Party (PKB), whose 9.18 per cent share of the vote is nearly double the 4.95 per cent it got in the 2009 election.

Two other moderate Islamic parties — National Mandate Party (PAN) and United Development Party (PPP) — achieved modest improvements of 1-2 per cent in the vote count.

However, conservative parties such as the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) and Crescent Star Party (PBB) fared worse than in 2009.

PKS, Indonesia’s largest Islamic party, which has been hit by corruption scandals, lost almost one percentage point to win 6.92 per cent this time around. PBB received 1.61 per cent, down marginally from 1.79 per cent.

Altogether, the five Islamic parties pulled in 31.85 per cent of the vote, compared with 25.89 per cent in 2009, although not as high as the 33.8 per cent in 1999, when religious parties made a comeback in Indonesia’s era of democratic reform after the fall of authoritarian leader Suharto.

“PKB, PAN and PPP are more moderate, while PKS and PBB are more conservative. The voting result is a good indication that politicisation of religion can be dampened, which is good for a more pluralistic society,” said Tiarma Siboro, a researcher at Jakarta-based political consultancy firm Concord Consulting.

Political scientist Indria Samego of the Indonesian Institute of Sciences attribute PKB’s success to its clever campaigning involving respected statesman Mahfud MD and PKB’s presidential candidate, Rhoma Irama, a self-styled “king of dangdut” (a popular music genre). “That apparently worked as a vote-getter. Also, Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) leaders are believed to have thrown their support behind PKB,” said Mr Samego, referring to the largest Muslim organisation in the country.

Muslim scholar Azyumardi Azra noted that NU supporters unhappy with the performance of the ruling Democratic Party have switched their votes to PKB and PPP.

The rise in votes for Islamic parties comes amid concern that the world’s largest Muslim country is turning increasingly intolerant with the government accused of pandering to groups which want Islam to play a more dominant role. Hera Diani, with AGENCIES