Indonesia electoral politics and palm oil in 2014

I am keeping an eye on this.

Please refer to posting at Khor Report's Palm Oil blog here: http://khorreports-palmoil.blogspot.com/2014/04/indonesia-parliamentary-elections.html

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I'll also note other less obviously palm oil impactful items here.

Thanks to Seng Keat for this one: Resurgent political Islam, or astute Islamic parties? By Greg Fealy – 14 April 2014; http://asiapacific.anu.edu.au/newmandala/2014/04/14/resurgent-political-islam-or-astute-islamic-parties/?utm_content=buffer26c6a&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer;
There were two main surprises in the 9 April legislative election in Indonesia, at least if the various quick count results are to be relied upon: the first was the poorer than expected performance of former president Megawati’s Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and the second was the higher than predicted vote for Islamic parties..... In 2009, the total vote for Islamic parties was 29%, the lowest ever recorded.  All major pollsters had forecast an even worse result for the 2014 election, with the Islamic party-vote ranging from around 15% to 25%.  No survey had Islamic parties improving on their overall performance of five years ago.  But the quick count results from 9 April showed that the five Islamic parties contesting the election had gained about 31-32% of the national vote.  Most of the polls had four of the five parties experiencing falling support; only the National Awakening Party (PKB) was slated to increase its vote.  The quick count figures showed that in fact four of the five parties lifted their vote, and the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), which had been predicted to suffer the biggest drop of all—around 3-5%—ended up with just a 1% decline.... How are we to account for this unexpectedly good showing?  To being with, there is little to suggest that this was due to a rise in ideological Islam.  None of the four Islamic parties that passed the 3.5% parliamentary threshold campaigned using Islamic concepts or doctrines.  Rather, their appeals to their core constituencies emphasised the practical benefits that they had or would deliver to their supporters..... (they moved ot the ) centre of the political spectrum, and away from a doctrinaire Islamic position...