Humanities & Social Sciences Reviews eISSN: 2395-6518, Vol 7, No 4, 2019, pp 1011-1017 https://doi.org/10.18510/hssr.2019.74138 1011 |www.hssr.in © Herdiansah et al. ISLAMIC PARTIES BETWEEN PRAGMATISM VS. IDEOLOGICAL PRINCIPLE: THE CASE OF 2017 JAKARTA GUBERNATORIAL ELECTION Ari Ganjar Herdiansah * , Widya Setiabudi, Danis Saputra, Anugrah Saputera Department of Political Science, Padjadjaran University, Jatinangor 45363, Indonesia. Email: * ari.ganjar@unpad.ac.id, w.setiabudi@unpad.ac.id, danis.saputran@ucmmk.com, asaputera@ucmmk.com Article History: Received on 25 th July 2019, Revised on 01 st September 2019, Published on 07 th October 2019 Abstract Purpose: This article seeks to analyze how Islamic parties act in the event of electoral competition filled by religious issues. On the other side, this article also tries to show the electoral impact of each Islamic parties’ decision on the candidates. Methodology: The study conducted through the interview with several Islamic parties’ figures and examining the exit poll survey. Result: The result reveals that even though there was a sensitive issue, the decision of Islamic parties was not solely stirred by the constituent expectation. Other factors such as elites and the organization’s interests were also influenced the decision-making process. However, the impact of its decision on electability indicates that religious issue was prominent, except for PAN. PKB and PPP that support Ahok-Djarot tend to have lessened rate, while PKS got higher electability. The case of Jakarta shows that the constituent principle or ideological is still significant if there are sensitive religious issues. In cases where religious issues have an outburst of support from the roots of the masses, Islamic parties are likely to benefit as long as there is a strong bond between the party's decision and its supporting root militancy. Applications: This research can be used for universities, teachers, and students. Novelty/Originality: The 2017 Jakarta gubernatorial election was highlighted by the issue of Islam blasphemy by Ahok, the powerful candidate. The issue became a national concern and invited thousands of protesters from various Islamic groups to Jakarta. Interestingly, not all Islamic parties against Ahok. In the final round, PKB and PPP chose to back Ahok- Djarot while PKS and PAN supported Anis-Sandi, a favorable candidate to them who feel disrupt by Ahok. Keywords: Islamic party, democracy, election, ideology, pragmatism. INTRODUCTION The ability of Islamic parties to compete in democratic electoral systems has long been a concern, especially around whether a party who carries religious principles and symbols (Islam) can achieve their goals in a democratic political system. Some researchers take a skeptical view of the mixture of religion and politics. Tibi and Vaezi, for example, consider that the existence of an Islamic party in a democratic system can give way to anti-democratic figures at the national level, which in turn will endanger democracy itself. The involvement of Islamic parties only legitimizes authoritarian rule in Muslim countries such as those taking place in Yemen, Jordan, Egypt, Turkey, Malaysia, and Nigeria due to its minimal democracy. However, Bubalo et al considered democracy and elections had encouraged Islamic parties to loosen their militancy as they become more interested in the power that can reach openly as prevail in Indonesia (Lobão, J., & Pereira, C. 2016 ; Machado, A. D. B., Souza, M. J., & Catapan, A. H. 2019 ). The problem to be explained in this article is how Islamic parties manage the issues of religion and identity, which are already embedded in their domain, in an election context. This issue is important to be studied because Islamic parties still have an interest in maintaining their constituents even though they continue to be inclusive. On the one hand, there is a tendency that Islamic parties are responding to the open and plural competition by promoting pragmatic issues and escaping Islamic agenda such as the Justice and Development Party (AKP) in Turkey. They prefer the claims of being a conservative party rather than an Islamic party, although they often struggle for Islamic issues. On the other hand, the Islamic party is also acting on ideological issues that are growing in its mass roots. It happened to the Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS) in Malaysia responded to the Islamic awakening movement triggered by the events of the Iranian revolution in the 1980s; the party then emphasized the importance of ulama's leadership. Indonesia has a particular condition in which people are moving towards modernization due to the rapid development in the past two decades. But to some extent it sparked the revival of religious consciousness among the middle class. This condition is a challenge for Islamic parties to act strategically while keeping sympathy from their constituents. Considering the average strength of their votes, they were compelled to join the party coalition with the highest votes number. They play the role of a decisive "client" party in the patronage relationship of the political system. In this article, Islamic party refers to the parties that represent Muslim communities and interests both expressed formally or symbolically (Zare, Z. 2015; Bakhshandeh, M., Sedrposhan, N., & Zarei, H. 2015 ). Currently, there are four parties that consistently gain important votes in every election; National Awakening Party (PKB), National Mandate Party (PAN), United Development Party (PPP), and Prosperous Justice Party (PKS).