Golkar's Vote Share Reaches its Lowest Point in the 2019 Election

Golkar Party celebrated its 58th anniversary on Thursday, October 20, 2022.

Initially known as the Golkar Joint Secretariat (Sekber Golkar), the party first participated in general elections (Pemilu) in 1971. Throughout the New Order era, they dominated the vote count, as shown in the graph.

Based on data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS), in its first election in 1971, Golkar garnered 34.35 million votes, or 62.8% of the national valid votes. Golkar's dominance continued, reaching 87.19 million votes (75.17%) in the 1997 election.

However, after the fall of President Soeharto, Golkar's vote share plummeted to only 23.68 million votes (22.43%) in the 1999 election. This downward trend continued, reaching its lowest point in the 2019 election with only 17.23 million votes, or 12.31% of the national valid votes.

Golkar's Coalition Facing the 2024 Election

For the 2024 election, Golkar, along with the National Mandate Party (PAN) and the United Development Party (PPP), formed the United Indonesia Coalition (KIB).

This coalition was formed partly because Golkar, PAN, and PPP did not individually meet the threshold for nominating a presidential and vice-presidential candidate (presidential threshold).

The threshold for nominating presidential and vice-presidential candidates for the 2024 election is stipulated in Article 222 of Law No. 7 of 2017 concerning Elections, which reads:

"Presidential candidates are nominated by a Political Party or a Coalition of Participating Political Parties that meet the requirements of obtaining at least 20% of the total seats in the House of Representatives (DPR) or obtaining 25% of the national valid votes in the previous House of Representatives election."

Based on this regulation, KIB is now entitled to nominate a presidential and vice-presidential candidate in the 2024 election, as the combined number of DPR seats from the three coalition parties has reached 25.73%.

Here's a breakdown of the vote share of the parties in KIB in the 2019 election:

* Golkar: 12.31%
* PAN: 6.84%
* PPP: 4.52%
* Total: 23.67%

Here's the DPR seat share of the KIB member parties in the 2019 election:

* Golkar: 14.78%
* PAN: 7.65%
* PPP: 3.30%
* Total: 25.73%