Nurdin Hasan, Banda Aceh – The Aceh Party, founded by former guerilla fighters from the Free Aceh Movement, or GAM, is the only one of six local political parties in the province to clear the 5 percent electoral threshold guaranteeing their future, a political analyst from a local university said on Wednesday.

"Only the Aceh Party will pass the electoral threshold," Syiah Kuala University political analyst Muhammad Jafar said here.

"The other five local parties in the 2009 elections will not be able to participate in the elections five years from now because they didn't get the 5 percent it takes to pass the electoral threshold."

The Aceh Party has dominated the vote tally for the provincial legislature, or DPRA, garnering 44.27 percent of the votes that have been counted.

The Aceh Independent Election Commission, or KIP, was still counting votes on Wednesday night but expected to complete the process today. The threshold is spelled out in the law on Aceh governance and a 2007 regulation.

Failure to meet the threshold means disqualification from participating in the 2014 elections, unless a party changes its name and registers as a new party with the regional office the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights.

As well as 37 national parties, six local parties took part in the April 9 legislative elections in Aceh.

Besides the Aceh Party, they are the Aceh People's Independent Voice Party, or SIRA; the Aceh People's Party, or PRA; the Sovereign Aceh Party, or PDA; the United Aceh Party, or PBA; and the Safe and Prosperous Aceh Party, or PAAS.

Aceh is the only province in Indonesia allowed to have local parties, based on the 2005 peace deal between the government GAM.

"With 69 seats in the DPRA, a local party can only pass [the electoral threshhold] if it wins three seats, or 5 percent of all 645 seats in the 23 district and municipality councils," Jafar said.

"So far, only the Aceh Party has been able to do this. The likelihood of the rest of the local parties passing the threshold is slim. If they are to participate in the 2014 elections, they have to change their names and start anew."

Jafar said he believed the decision-making process at the DPRA would be improved with the Aceh Party holding the majority.

"Legislative decision-making will be easier with a single majority," he said. "Relations with the Aceh government will also be very good because the governor himself is from the Aceh Party, allowing for a mutually supportive and synergistic relation between the legislature and the government."

However, Jafar said there might be communication problems between the DPRA and the central government, since local Acehnese parties did not have party branches in Jakarta.

He said it was important that there be intensive communication between the DPRA and the 13 Acehnese members of the central House of Representatives, to ensure that the province's interests were sufficiently represented in Jakarta.