Jakarta – The Golkar Party said on Sunday it would continue to fight for higher parliamentary threshold of 5 percent to reduce the number of political parties at the House of Representatives.

Speaking after Golkar's national meeting at the Ritz Carlton hotel, Golkar Party executive Priyo Budi Santosa said that the higher threshold was needed to streamline the country's party system. "Let's aim for a consolidated party system," Priyo told Tempointeraktif.com.

The United Development Party has expressed its opposition to the higher threshold, arguing that it would exclude small parties from sending their representatives to the House.

PPP secretary Romahurmuziy said earlier that the current 2.5 percent threshold had already exclude representatives voted by 18 million voters.

Priyo denied allegation that the higher parliamentary threshold aimed to bar small parties from getting seats at the House. He noted that even the current big political parties may not be able to pass the 5 percent threshold.

"Let the people decide, whether certain parties need to merge with other parties, that should be a natural process, and that's a democratic process," Priyo said