Jakarta – Small political parties demanded Tuesday they be allowed to contest the 2009 elections.

The 2004 General Elections Law states that only parties with a least 3 percent of the seats in the House of Representatives will be allowed to take part in the 2009 legislative and presidential elections.

The minor parties that will be affected by the law are the Crescent Star Party, the Unity and Nationhood Pioneer Party, the Reform Star Party and the Prosperous Peace Party as in total they hold less than 16.5 seats at the House.

"It is not fair to allow us to contest just once in the 2004 general election. We should be given a second chance to show our performance," PBR chairman Bursa Zarnubi told a discussion here Tuesday.

Harris Syamsuddin, a political analyst at the Indonesian Institute of Sciences, said Indonesia ideally needed three to seven major parties to form a simple multi-party system in the coming elections and build a strong democracy in the parliament and the government.