Elections in Jakarta

The PPP victory in 1977 focused attention on electoral politics in the capital, in the search for clues to the direction of events in Indonesia. Attention was drawn in particular to the possibility of extraconstitutional mass opposition to the Suharto government. Golkar's recovery in 1982 suggested in turn that waves of opposition were either abating or being quelled. A closer investigation of the 1982 election suggests rather that Golkar and the government made skillful use of the election campaign to capture a plurality of votes in the city. It indicates, however, that voting patterns in the capital are relatively stable and reflect the existence of large communities with firm allegiances to one side or the other. This in turn suggests that a PPP victory in Jakarta, whether in 1977 or perhaps in the future, does not herald large-scale opposition to the government outside the institutions it has permitted.