M. Taufiqurrahman, Jakarta – Leaders of small political parties are fiercely objecting to a plan to increase the electoral threshold from 3 percent to 5 percent. The move is part of a draft amendment to the electoral law.
Chairman of the newly-renamed Muslim-based Star Crescent Party (PBB) Malam Sambat Ka'ban and chairman of the Christian-oriented Prosperous Peace Party (PDS) Denny Tewu said raising the electoral threshold would deny the public the chance to choose from a wide political spectrum.
"Freedom of speech and association is guaranteed by the state constitution, so there is no need to put a limitation on that through an electoral threshold," Ka'ban, who is also Forestry Minister, said Friday.
Tewu suggested that instead of determining electoral eligibility based on how many seats political parties secured at the House, all parties that got seats for legislatures at all levels should be allowed to contest the coming election.
He said that raising the bar by 2 percent would result in the dissolution of some political parties that had in fact gained popularity among the public.
"It will also mean a waste of the government's money as, in our case, we received more than Rp 400 billion over five years as assistance from the government," Tewu said.
Both the PBB and the PDS failed to meet the electoral threshold of 3 percent of seats at the House of Representatives for the 2004 election. The PBB, formerly known as the Crescent Star Party, got only 10 seats in the House, forcing it to build a coalition with other small parties in the legislature just to stay in existence.
In the 2004 legislative election, the PDS got 12 seats at the House and garnered 2.13 percent of the popular vote.
The electoral-threshold system was first enacted after the 1999 general election. Only political parties that garnered 2 percent of the seats at the House were eligible to contest the 2004 election.
A 2003 law passed to serve as foundation for the 2004 legislative elections raised the bar, stating that only parties that claimed 3 percent of the DPR seats could contest the 2009 elections.
To simplify polling procedures, lawmakers will likely increase the electoral threshold to five percent for the 2014 elections.
Senior Golkar party lawmaker Ferry Mursidan Baldan said the application of the electoral threshold principle was in fact one of many ways to improve the functioning of democracy.
"Parties which fail to meet the electoral threshold will not be ordered to shut down, they will only be blocked from taking part in elections, meaning that they have to consolidate more," said Ferry, who served as chairman of the House special committee tasked with deliberating the 2003 law.
He said that failure to meet the threshold did not spell the end for a political party since it could still merge with other parties or simply change its name.