JAKARTA: Indonesia is set for a period of political uncertainty after an unconvincing election win by the main opposition party which will likely force it to find allies to back its candidate in a July vote for president of Southeast Asia’s biggest economy.

Investor disquiet at that prospect and a much tougher race to the presidency for the popular candidate of the Indonesian Democratic Party-Struggle (PDI-P) took its toll on Jakarta shares which were down 3.34 percent by the close.

That was about the same percentage that they jumped after the party announced last month it was nominating Jakarta governor Joko “Jokowi” Widodo as its candidate for the July 9 presidential election, and whom many opinion polls before Wednesday’s parliamentary election said was certain to win in July. The rupiah initially slipped but later recovered. Both shares and the rupiah are still around the highest levels since the latter part of 2013.

“The next step for us is to look at which other parties we can cooperate with,” said PDI-P vice secretary general Eriko Sotarduga.

“We are talking with many parties right now.”

The party won just less than 20 percent of the votes in the parliamentary election, according to initial results, the biggest of any party but below a threshold needed to nominate its own presidential candidate.

“It’s important to say that we’re not going to build a coalition just based on transactional politics, for example they give us their support and we give them something in return,” Sotarduga said.

“We also don’t want to build a big coalition because we’ve seen for the last few years that a big coalition with too many partners can be very ineffective.” He was referring to the broad coalition government of outgoing President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono which has been widely criticized for ineffective leadership and whose ruling Democratic Party saw its votes halve on Wednesday.

Ten parties qualified for seats in Parliament, opening up the possibility of various coalitions.

“It’s going to be weeks before we see any conclusive data,” said political analyst Kevin Evans, though he predicted PDI-P would be able to put Jokowi forward for president without help.

The formal result of the legislative election will not be announced until early May, a little before the May 10 deadline for parties to nominate their candidates for the presidency.

Some analysts said the presidential vote could be forced to go into a second round.