The Ideological Factor Strengthens Political Identity for Increasing Vote in General Elections in Indonesia

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Identity politics is a threat to democracy in many countries, including Indonesia. At the same time, in Indonesia, the number of Muslim voters reached 80%. Muslim voters are the majority group and are vulnerable to identity politics, given their character that is easily influenced to follow certain behaviors. This research has an urgency to reveal how big the threat of identity politics is to Muslim voters, especially in Malang Regency, East Java. The choice of Malang Regency, East Java, as the object of the research is attributed to the fact that the majority of the population in that location are traditional Muslims, and Muslim educational institutions, such as Islamic boarding schools and Muslim schools, are the most numerous in East Java. This research uses a qualitative analytical approach to reveal the phenomenon of identity politics among Muslim voters carried out by political parties. The findings of this research revealed that identity politics is strengthening among Muslim voters, driven by three factors: political elites, mass media, and institutions. This is relevant to the theory put forward by Theresia Kuhn. However, there are other factors that strengthen identity politics that are not put forward by Kuhn, namely, ideological factors. The ideology of the party is the same as the ideology of the majority of voters. This is a novelty in this study, which differs from Kuhn’s research and other studies. Keywords: Muslim voters, identity politics in Indonesia, political parties