Parties are indispensable political organizations through which people
channel commonly shared values, beliefs, and ideas of governing and
ordering priorities. Once political parties gain power; preferably, in free
and fair elections, they can control the state and the resources and personnel
of the government individually or in coalition with other political
parties. As instruments of collective action, argues Weiner, political parties
are the creation of the political elite in a bid to control the resources
and personnel of government to implement an ideology or a political
program.1 From this perspective, Islamic political parties that entered
competitive politics are no different from other political parties in that
all parties struggle to gain power and to control the government and its
resources. Moreover, much like other political parties, they have various
types of organizational structures, ability to mobilize financial resources,
provide support and goodwill, recruit cadres, select or elect officers, and,
in some cases, develop procedures for internal control and management
