Jakarta – Legislators, government officials and political experts continue to clash over whether or not there should be an electoral threshold limiting the establishment of new political parties.

A review of the existing law has been requested by 13 political parties to reconsider article 9 of the 2003 covering the constitutional right to participate in general elections.

The article as it stands says parties participating in general elections must have at least 3 percent of the current number of seats in the House of Representatives.

It also says they must have at least 4 percent of current regional council memberships in 50 percent of the 33 provinces, or 50 percent of memberships in all regions (regencies and municipalities) throughout the country.

Nursyahbani Katjasungkana, from the legal commission at the House of Representatives, said the limitation was needed to guarantee political stability and full participation of all parties in the House.

"Most of the time parties that only get a small number of seats in the House cannot put their representatives on each commission, which makes their representations rather useless," she told the Constitutional Court on Tuesday.

Ramli Hutabarat, an expert overseeing political, legal and human rights issues at the Justice and Human Rights Ministry, said the requirement was needed so the government could create a healthy and mature political climate. "That is why we want to determine the requirements in the hope that the existing parties function effectively," he said.

But Ramli said no party would actually lose the constitutional right. He said a party could still participate in elections by merging with other parties or by establishing a new party.

Political expert Indra J. Piliang from the Centre for Strategic and International Studies however told the court the government should consider the impact of the merger on constituents. "How can parties be responsible to their voters if they have already changed their names," he said.

Indra said during transitional periods, the government should let the people decide which parties deserved their support. "I believe the Indonesian people have enough awareness of politics – the change should not be stipulated in the law."

He said he believed although an electoral threshold could be set at 0 percent, it would be impossible for this to generate too many parties. "Requirements on establishing new political parties and their coverage areas are enough to limit the number of new parties in the country."

The 2003 law requires a legally acceptable party to have branch offices with complete organizational structures in at least two thirds of Indonesia's provinces and at least 1,000 members.

Indra said threshold limitations would decrease public participation in politics. "This can be seen in the increasing number of people who choose not to vote," he said.

Quoting the results of a recent survey, Indra said several recent regional elections in the country had shown a loss of around 50 percent of voters at the polls. Jakarta alone saw a 34 percent drop in the number of voters in the recent gubernatorial election.

"This means limitations in the political system will reduce the number of voters and will also decrease the legitimacy of the political parties selected in an election."