Undeterred by a series of court-issued setbacks for independent candidates and small parties, 23 political parties have established a group to fight a Constitutional Court ruling that upheld a threshold for parties to make it into the House of Representatives.

The court recently rejected a request filed by 11 parties regarding the parliamentary threshold clause in the 2008 Election Law.

The parties established the group during a closed discussion in Jakarta on Tuesday in part as a reaction to the court's ruling.

The law stipulates that a political party must win more than 2.5 percent of the total votes to receive seats in the House, and political analysts have predicted that only around ten of the 38 parties eligible to run in the national legislative elections will actually make it into the House.

The Court also recently ruled that independent candidates would not be allowed to run in the presidential election. Instead, a candidate must be nominated by a party or coalition of parties that had won 20 percent of the seats in the House or 25 percent of the popular vote to be eligible to run in the July presidential poll.

Oesman Sapta, chief of the Regional Unity Party said that participants created a team to hammer out an agenda for the group. The group is slated to reconvene on March 6.

Asked if the group might itself become a political coalition, Oesman said there had been no talks to that effect, adding that such talks might weaken the group's resolve to press their agenda.

The group discussed staging a rally to target the General Elections Commission, filing a complaint with the Judicial Commission and suggested a potential boycott of the 2009 elections.

Former State Secretary Yusril Ihza Mahendra, who served in Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's cabinet and is a notable member of the Crescent Star Party, added to the chorus of voices saying the threshold clause effectively shut out small parties.

The meeting was also attended by the chairman of the Indonesian Workers and Employers Party, Daniel Hutapea, and Marhaenism Indonesian National Party chairwoman Sukmawati Sukarnoputri.

Also on hand were representatives of the Democratic Renewal Party, the Patriot Party, the Freedom Party, the Prosperous Peace Party, the Republican Party, the Sovereignty Party, the Labor Party, the Functional Party of Struggle and the Vanguard Party. (Antara, JG)