Personal Networks and Election in Divided Society: Women Candidates’ Strategy in the 2019 Legislative Election in Ambon Indonesia

Abstract

Research on electoral politics in post-conflict areas tended to place religious primordiality as a key explanation for electoral preferences and voting behaviour. Although they contribute to explaining fragmentation and patterns of relationships between groups, they ignore personal networks in electoral consolidation. Based on the case study in the 2019 legislative election in Ambon Indonesia, this article discusses the strategies of women candidates who cross religious primordialism. This study found that women candidates seek to use personal networks to help them consolidate constituencies and votes in interfaith communities. This situation happened in the context where there was a tight competition between candidates because of the electoral system and simultaneous elections. Candidates cannot rely on party machines or local institutions so they have to look for alternative strategies. The Ambon case shows that women candidates use personal networks to cross primordial division, which is a constituency characterized by residence locations divided on a religious basis. Personal networks appear in various forms and functions, but all contribute to additional votes as well as a new trend in which politicians approach interfaith communities. In this sense, electoral democracy in a divided society can contribute to the maintenance of peace.