This article examines the opposition strategy of the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) in Indonesia’s multiparty presidential system during President Joko Widodo’s administration. Departing from the weakening of opposition caused by the expansion of the governing coalition and the tendency toward party cartelization, this article addresses the question of why PKS chose to maintain its opposition stance while most political parties joined the government. This study employs a qualitative approach with a theory-refining case study design. Data were collected through interviews with PKS elites and political observers, official party documents, parliamentary records, electoral data, media reports, and academic literature. The analysis focuses on PKS’s position toward three strategic policies: the Sexual Violence Crime Law, the Job Creation Law, and the State Capital Law. The findings show that PKS’s opposition was selective and issue-based: moral-ideological in the Sexual Violence Crime Law, political-economic in the Job Creation Law, and governance-fiscal in the State Capital Law. This article argues that PKS’s opposition should not be understood as a failure of office-seeking, but as a strategic mechanism to sustain policy-seeking and vote-seeking in a cartelized multiparty presidential context.
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