Abdul Khalik, Jakarta – Two contentious issues have once again held up deliberations of the presidential election bill, leaving the way open for legislators to pass the bill through a vote.

The most controversial issue concerns the threshold – the minimum percentage of House seats a party or coalition requires to be able to nominate its own presidential candidate.

The other sticking point is whether the president and vice president should be also be allowed to chair a political party.

A plenary session of the House of Representatives' special committee deliberating the bill failed Thursday to resolve these two critical issues.

"If we fail to compromise then we already have the option to vote," committee chairman Ferry Mursyidan Baldan told The Jakarta Post.

The committee plans to pass the bill at a House plenary session scheduled for Oct. 28, 2008.

Legislators attending Thursday's meeting were split over the three proposed thresholds on offer, which were: 15 percent of House seats or 20 percent of total votes won in the legislative election; 20 percent of House seats or 20 percent of votes; and 25 percent of House seats.

Legislators are also preparing to vote on whether an elected president or vice president should be allowed to chair a party.

Thursday's meeting kicked off in a mood of compromise, with factions such as the United Development Party (PPP), the National Awakening Party (PKB), the Democratic Party and the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) agreeing to raise their proposed thresholds to 20 percent of House seats, up from their initial position of 15 percent.

The Golkar Party and the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) lowered their proposed thresholds to 25 percent of House seats, down from 30 percent.

"We were about to begin finding a compromise somewhere between 20 and 25 percent. But it turned out not all parties were on the same footing, so we couldn't continue," said PKS faction chairman Mahfudz Siddiq.

The failure to reach a compromise during the meeting was blamed on the National Mandate Party's (PAN) insistence on sticking to its proposed threshold of 15 percent.

Tjahyo Kumolo, chairman of the PDI-P faction at the House, said if the decision on the threshold finally went to a vote, then many parties would fall back to their original positions, with Golkar and the PDI-P pushing for 30 percent and the others likely to vote for 15 percent. Tjahyo hinted the PDI-P was ready to compromise, saying the best option was 20 percent of House seats or 25 percent of votes – a proposal put forth by several other parties.

On the issue of dual positions, only the PDI-P and Golkar rejected an article in the bill requiring an elected president or vice president to resign as party chairperson.

Legislators will meet again next Monday in a final push to find a compromise threshold to prevent the bill's passage from being decided in a vote.