PBB Partai Bulan Bintang Moon and Crescent Party

This was one of the numerous parties established in the first few months following the resignation of President Soeharto. The party has sought to promote itself as the spirit of the old Masjumi, that is as the embodiment of Modernist Islam. The party’s first Chairman was Prof Yursil Ihza Mahendra, a constitutional lawyer and official with the State Secretariat.

The party has sought to promote the traditionalist Islamist agenda of applying the Charter as well as promotion of Syariah Laws within the wider legal system from national to local level. In practice the party has demonstrated greater political flexibility in terms of working with coalition partners from the political centre and even of having its Chairman operating as a minister in the Government led by PDIP’s .

The party has competed in the parliamentary elections of 1999 and 2004. It will also compete in the 2009 elections.

In the 1999 elections the party secured 2% of the vote, making it the 6 th largest party. The support base of the party was outside the Javanese heartland – central and eastern Java (2.6%) than in the Javanese heartland (0.9%). In terms of the breakdown between the Island of Java and off-Java the support was balanced. This indicates a stronger than average support for the party in western Java.

The party’s strongest area of support was in the region of Bangka Belitung (which contains the home island of then party leader Prof ) where the party secured 10.6%. In West , the party secured 5.9%. Other provinces in which the party produced above average results included South Kalimantan (4.1%), West Nusa Tenggara (3.8%), Southeast Sulawesi (3.6%) and the then province of West Java (3.5%).

In the elections of 2004 the party increased its support to 2.6%. Its vote off-Java the party achieved a vote of 3.7% while on the Island of Java the party secured 1.9% of the vote. The party enhanced its vote most noticeably in the newly established province of Bangka Belitung, where the vote reached 21.4%. In the national parliamentary elections the party outpolled all other parties. In West Nusa Tenggara the party gained 11.6% coming second to in this province. Other provinces where the party secured over 5% of the vote was in Southeast Sulawesi (6.2%), West Sumatra (5.8%), Gorontalo (5.4%), (5.3%) and South Kalimantan (5.1%).

In the Presidential elections of 2004, the party came out early as a supporter of the eventual winner, Dr .