Tony Hotland and Imanuddin Razak, Jakarta – A fragile coalition between Golkar Party and the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) is facing another challenge – this time from the outside.

Representatives of eight factions at the House of Representatives, including President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's Democratic Party (PD), assembled at the Mulia Hotel in Central Jakarta on Tuesday evening, expressing their concern over a meeting last week between executives of Golkar and PDI-P in Medan, North Sumatra.

"We are concerned with two big political issues ahead of the 2009 elections – the electoral threshold and the number of voting regions," Mahfudz Shidiq, deputy chairman of the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) and chairman of the PKS faction at the House, told reporters after the meeting.

"We've been observing efforts by the alliance of the two political parties (PDI-P and Golkar) to manipulate the substance of the government-drafted political bills for their own benefit."

He cited what he called the two parties' attempt to modify the size of election zones. "By reducing the size of an election zone, the two parties will have a greater chance of gaining more votes because the allocated (legislative) seats will be much smaller than normal... Only big parties will be able to grab the fewer seats," he said.

He said the meeting at the Mulia Hotel was also prompted by a reported claim by the Golkar and the PDI-P that they are the only political parties that are nationalist-oriented and that support the unitary state of Indonesia.

Chairman of the National Mandate Party (PAN) faction at the House, Zulkifli Hasan, said the meeting was held in an attempt to forge a united stance among the eight factions in response to the four political bills that have been submitted to the House.

These bills concern political parties, legislative elections, the structure and position of legislative councils, and presidential elections.

"We gathered here to seek a settlement of all our differences in viewing the political bills, to accelerate their deliberation in the House's special committees," he said. "This is just the beginning, there will be follow-up meetings."

Mahfudz said there was a possibility the meeting of the eight factions would be expanded to discuss other strategic issues and possible alliances for the 2009 elections. "Basically, we do not want any tyranny of the majority that will control the country's political arena," he said.