*PKB INDRAMAYU 2026 CONFERENCE, AMRONI, S.IP. AND PKB’S ELECTORAL TARGET FOR THE 2029 ELECTION*
By: H. Adlan Daie
Political analyst, General Secretary of the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) of Indramayu Regency
The “sexy” and interesting aspect of the PKB Muscab, the highest forum for the PKB Indramayu Branch on April 18, 2026, at the Ballroom of the Swiss Belinn Hotel in Indramayu, was certainly no longer about the dynamics of candidacy and succession for the PKB Indramayu Branch Leadership Council (DPC).
This is because the PKB leadership election system at all levels has transformed into a “guided democracy” election scenario from the “center,” far removed from the ripples of political dynamics. It’s possible that some PKB activists are experiencing a “toothache” due to the limited space for their political “speak up.”
From the author’s perspective, there are at least two interesting “highlights” or points to examine from the remarks by Amroni, S.IP., the chairman of the PKB Indramayu branch (DPC PKB) and also the deputy chairman of the Indramayu Regional People’s Representative Council (DPRD) at the Muscab forum regarding “political effort,” the driving force behind PKB’s power injection into the projected 2029 election targets.
These are the urgency of PKB Indramayu’s systemic structural strength as a contesting party and the correlation of its impact on “electoral targeting.” PKB’s electoral target for conversion is 15 seats in the Indramayu DPRD, meaning PKB Indramayu projects a potential target of winning the 2029 election.
The question is not whether this target is achievable, as Otto Van Bismoch’s dictum, “Politics is the art of the possible,” suggests that politics is indeed an elastic space of “possibilities.” Rather, it is about how the political orchestrations are constructed to pave a measurable path to achieving the political target of 15 DPRD seats.
In other words, according to Bend Anderson’s theory of “Political Imagined Communities,” political work is indeed about imagining the party’s future political targets as a strategy not only for “survival rating,” the ability to survive, but also for the power of imagination to boost the electoral potential it seeks in its election projections.
This is the work of political strategy, not simply projecting political technocracy to achieve the target of 15 seats in the Indramayu Regional People’s Representative Council (DPRD). Even if PKB mistakenly diagnoses the romanticism of its electoral gains in the 2024 election, it could become a “floating” electoral force, a floating vote that opens up the possibility of migration “to another heart.”
PKB’s superiority as a “party id,” a strong political subculture base that other parties lack, namely the grassroots political subculture of Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), designed and built within the consolidation of a structured, systemic, massive, and bureaucratically organized political infrastructure, is certainly a crucial variable.
However, structural consolidation alone is insufficient to exponentially increase PKB’s electoral trend unless it occasionally employs “tactical” maneuvers and political shockwaves by engaging in political “speak-ups” in public spaces to align PKB’s political gestures with the context of local public issues.
The current electoral political regime, based on numerous electoral political studies, necessitates that PKB must not be “usual,” routine, and flat, but rather present itself with occasional political impacts in the public sphere, capable of transforming its political communication within the familiarity of political conversations beyond PKB’s “party identity” base.
In a national survey by the polling agency “Poltracking” (early April 2026 edition), the National Awakening Party (PKB) ranked fourth (8.06%), behind the Golkar Party (9.09%), the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP) (15.1%), and the Gerindra Party, which surged to 26%, up from 13% in the 2024 election.
In the context of PKB’s 8% survey figure above, this means that 2% of PKB voters have not yet decided to vote for PKB, similar to the 9.8% achieved in the 2024 election. This 2% figure nationally equates to nearly 4 million voters.
In the context of Indramayu, PKB, as the “party id,” draws its largest electoral base from “NU members,” who engage in religious cultural practices such as tahlil (religious remembrance), grave visits, qunut (prayer) during dawn prayers, etc., at 82%, but in the category of “active NU supporters,” at 26% (2020 “Indekstart” survey data).
The 26% figure is spread across active social community nodes in the NU network of Islamic boarding schools, NU schools, madrasas, religious study groups, mosques, religious counselor networks, and Hajj and Umrah guidance agencies.
This means that active NU sympathizers, as mentioned above, are the “electoral platform” for the National Awakening Party (PKB), as the “party ID” created by NU is crucial to explore and maximize PKB’s core electoral strength. PKB’s electoral achievement in Indramayu in the 2024 election, with 18%, still has room to approach its social base strength of 26%.
The strategy for legislative candidate strength, even with an “open” proportional system, must be integrated into PKB’s electoral branding. The stronger PKB’s electoral branding, the easier it will be for the candidates they nominate to capitalize on PKB’s electoral strength, and the candidates themselves will become a crucial component of PKB’s leverage beyond PKB’s “party ID.”
This is a prerequisite for achieving the electoral target mentioned above, referring to the Jef index variable.
Fry Wonters, namely the integration of “politics of mind” (political ideas and issue choices), “political behavior” (the strength of the political ecosystem and its logistics), and “political skill” within a single political orchestration framework.
Congratulations to the 2026 PKB Indramayu Regional Conference (Muscab), although there is still ample time left until the 2029 election. May the Muscab momentum serve as a kick-off point, paving the way for a winning spirit for the projected 2029 election at the Indramayu Regional People’s Representative Council (DPRD).**
Indramayu, April 26, 2026
Wassalam
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