1987 Indonesian legislative election

Indonesia's fifth legislative election, and the fourth under the New Order government, was held on 23 April 1987. There were three participants; the two political parties and the "functional group" Golkar. Like all the New Order elections, it was an outright victory for Golkar.

1987 Indonesian legislative election
23 April 1987
All 400 seats in the DPR
201 seats needed for a majority
Turnout96.4%
0.1%
  First party Second party Third party
 
Leader Sudharmono Jailani Naro Suryadi
Party Golkar PPP PDI
Last election 242 seats, 64.34% 94 seats, 27.78% 24 seats, 7.88%
Seats won 299 61 40
Seat change 57 33 16
Popular vote 62,783,680 13,701,428 9,384,708
Percentage 73.11% 15.96% 10.93%
Swing 8.77% 11.82% 3.05%
Logo

Top: Results of the local elections showing the party with the largest share of votes.
Bottom: Results of the overseas election showing the party with the largest share of votes.
  Golkar
  PPP
  PDI
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Background

In the elections of 1977 and 1982, the notionally Islamic United Development Party (PPP) had seen a steady increase in its share of the vote, despite the New Order government's restrictions on political activity. It managed to position itself as the party of the "little people". In 1984, with the agreement of the government, under the leadership of Abdurrahman Wahid, the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) left the PPP, which it had been forced to join under the 1973 fusion of the Islamic parties.[1] Later that year, the government obliged all political parties to adopt the state philosophy Pancasila as their ideological basis. In 1985 the PPP was pressured to change the party symbol from the Kaaba, the building at the center of the al-Masjid al-Haram in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, to the star from the official symbol for Pancasila.[2]

In 1987, the NU leadership declared that its members and supporters were "not obliged to vote for the PPP, and not forbidden to vote for Golkar". This had the effect of increasing the influence of the NU, which had been much diminished within the PPP.[1] [3]

Schedule
Events[4] Date[4]
Voter registration 1 May 1986 - 26 August 1986
Submission of names and symbols of the political parties 1 May 1986 - 29 June 1986
Nomination of MP candidates 10 July 1986 - 10 August 1987
Electoral campaign 24 March 1987 - 17 April 1987
Election silence 18 April 1987 - 22 April 1987
Election day 23 April 1987
Vote Calculation
  • DPRD II (24 April 1987 - 18 May 1987)
  • DPRD I (24 April 1987 - 25 May 1987)
  • DPR (24 April 1987 - 31 May 1987)
Ratification of election results
  • DPRD II (18 May 1987 - 24 May 1987)
  • DPRD I (25 May 1987 - 31 May 1987)
  • DPR (1 June 1987 - 10 June 1987)
Appointment of legislative members
  • DPRD II (25 May 1987 - 10 June 1987)
  • DPRD I (1 June 1987 - 20 June 1987)
  • DPR (11 June 1987 - 10 July 1987)

Campaign

Golkar

The priority of Golkar was to secure a majority of the popular vote in the devoutly Islamic province of Aceh, the only province apart from Jakarta where it had failed to do so in 1982.[5][6] In order to achieve this, Golkar made use of two civil servants to run its financial campaign: the managing director of state-owned oil company Pertamina and the head of the state-owned logistics agency BULOG. Local companies, much more heavily dependent on government contracts then in the past, were the biggest donors. However, the crucial factor for Golkar was the political leadership of Aceh governor Ibrahim Hasan, an economist who managed to unite the traditional and modern aspirations of the Acehnese people. He traveled around the province telling people that a Golkar victory would bring about material development without sacrificing traditional values.[7]

PDI

In the final days of the campaign, thousands of young supporters of the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) paraded in Jakarta carrying portraits of former president Sukarno. In their eyes, the anti-Western Sukarno was associated with the Indonesian National Party (PNI), one of the parties forced to fuse into the PDI in 1973, and was therefore a clear symbol of opposition to the pro-Western New Order. During the campaign, the PDI had tried to take a stand against corruption and economic inequality.[8]

  • PPP campaign
  • Golkar campaign
  • PDI campaign

Radio and television campaigns

The government of Indonesia had arranged a campaign for the government-appointed central board of the political parties to speak publicly in the television and radio. The broadcasting rights for this digital campaign is held by the TVRI for the televised campaigns, and the RRI for the radio campaigns. The recording of the campaign is held in the respective studios. Only national and private radios and television can relay the campaign on the whole, while individual and organizational radios and television cannot relay the campaign on the whole.[9]

Radio Campaigns[10]
Round Date PPP Date Golkar Date PDI
1 24 March 1987 R.M.O Mahdi Tjokroaminoto 26 March 1987 Sudharmono
(Chairman of Golkar)		 28 March 1987 Titi Juliasih
(Vice General Secretary of PDI)
2 30 March 1987 Aisyah Aminy
(PPP Legislative Member)		 1 April 1987 Sri Redjeki 3 April 1987 Benedictus Nahot Marbun
(Head of PDI)
3 5 April 1987 Nurhasan Ibnu Hadjar 7 April 1987 Sakti Qudratullah 9 April 1987 Dimmy Haryanto
(General Secretary of PDI)
4 11 April 1987 Imam Sofwan
(PPP Legislative Member)		 13 April 1987 Freddy Latumahina
(Golkar Legislative Member)		 15 April 1987 Markus Wauran
(Vice Treasurer of PDI)
Television Campaigns[11]
Round Date PPP Date Golkar Date PDI
1 24 March 1987 Moch. Husni Thamrin 26 March 1987 Sudharmono
(Chairman of Golkar)		 28 March 1987 Suryadi
(Chairman of PDI)
2 30 March 1987 Mudrikah 1 April 1987 A. Sulasikin Murpratomo 3 April 1987 Fatimah Ahmad
(Vice Head of PDI)
3 5 April 1987 Imron Rosyadi 7 April 1987 Moch. Tarmoedji 9 April 1987 Sukowaluyo Mintohardjo
(Head of PDI)
4 11 April 1987 Jailani Naro
(Chairman of PPP)		 13 April 1987 Sarwono Kusumaatmadja
(General Secretary of Golkar)		 15 April 1987 Nicolaus Daryanto
(General Secretary of PDI)

Results
The results of the election being announced by Gunardo as the Vice Chairman of LPU.

As a result of the withdrawal of the NU, the PPP lost more than 40% of its 1982 vote, with Golkar seeing the most benefit.[6] The PPP vote fell in 24 or the 27 provinces.[12] The PDI share of the vote rose by 3%, with its share up by more than a third over 1982. Most of the increases came in western Java, and in Jakarta, the PDI's vote rose to 28.8% from 15.8% in 1982. With the conflicts with the PPP following the departure of the NU, voting for the PDI was the only way of registering a protest against the domination by the military-bureaucracy of the political system.[8] Golkar, meanwhile, achieved its aim in Aceh, and for the first time won an absolute majority of the vote in Jakarta and every other province of Indonesia. This would be the case for every election until the 1998 collapse of the New Order.[6]

Ballot number Election participant Votes % Seats
2 Golkar (Golongan Karya) 62,783,680 73.16 299
1 United Development Party (Partai Persatuan Pembangunan, PPP) 13,701,428 15.97 61
3 Indonesian Democratic Party (Partai Demokrasi Indonesia, PDI) 9,384,708 10.87 40
Total 85,869,816 100% 400
Source: Komisi Pemilihan Umum (General Election Commission), p39

The aftermath

After the election the next item on the political agenda was the election of the president and vice-president by the People's Consultative Assembly. The reelection of 66-year-old Suharto was a foregone conclusion given he appointed half the membership of the assembly as well as controlling the elected Golkar members and the unelected delegates from the Armed Forces. This added up to 80% of the membership. The only question was who would Suharto appoint as Vice President. Eventually the post went to Golkar chairman and State Secretary/Minister Sudharmono. In March 1988 the two men were formally elected and inaugurated for the 1988–1993 term.[13]

References
  1. Schwartz (1994) p172
  2. Liddle (1994) p. 94
  3. Liddle (1994) p. 95
  4. General Elections Institution 1988, pp. 53–63
  5. Liddle (1994) p. 96
  6. Evans (2003)
  7. Liddle (1994) p. 97
  8. Liddle (1994) p. 98
  9. General Elections Institution 1988, pp. 206–210
  10. General Elections Institution 1988, pp. 207–208
  11. General Elections Institution 1988, pp. 208–209
  12. Liddle (1994) p. 92
  13. Liddle (1994) p. 99

Bibliography
  • General Elections Institution (1988), Pemilihan Umum 1987 [1987 General Election] (in Indonesian), Jakarta
  • Evans, Kevin Raymond (2003) The History of Political Parties and general Elections in Indonesia Arise Consultancies, Jakarta ISBN 979-97445-0-4
  • Komisi Pemilihan Umum (General Election Commission) retrieved January 6, 2008
  • Liddle, R. William (1994) Pemilu-Pemilu Orde Baru (Elections of the New Order), LP3ES, Jakarta ISBN 979-8015-88-6
  • Schwartz, Adam (1994) A Nation in Waiting: Indonesia in the 1990s, Allen & Unwin. ISBN 1-86373-635-2
  • Sudibjo, M (Ed) (1995) Pemilihan Umum 1992: Suatu Evaluasi (The 1992 General Election: An Evaluation) Center for Strategic and International Studies, Jakarta. OCLC 32449151
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