Markus Junianto Sihaloho – A day after three new political parties registered for the 2014 elections, a senior politician said that proposed amendments to the Election Law would likely make it harder for them to succeed.
Pramono Anung, a deputy speaker of the House of Representatives, said on Tuesday that revisions to the Election Law could raise the bar for parties to get their members into the legislature. Negotiations are under way in the House to raise the electoral threshold, the percentage of votes required to qualify for the House.
But the idea of raising the threshold has been divisive. There is a preliminary agreement to raise it from 2.5 percent to 3 percent, but smaller parties are not happy with any increase and larger parties want to see it put higher.
The three largest factions in the House – the Democratic Party, the Golkar Party and the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) – contend the proposed increase will improve governance by trimming the number of parties in the legislature.
The Democrats have called for the threshold to be increased to 4 percent, while the other two parties want it at 5 percent. Smaller political parties say they will be squeezed out of the political arena if the threshold is set too high.
Pramono, from the PDI-P, said it would be difficult for new parties to establish themselves if the House agreed to apply the new threshold at both the national and regional levels.
"It means any new party must really be ready to meet some tough requirements," he said. "Without preparation, it will be useless. And it's not an easy task."
However, Yunarto Widjaja, a political analyst, said the amendments to the Election Law could end up benefitting new and smaller parties in the next elections if a proposed clause on the merger of parties was included in the final draft. The clause would allow parties that failed to meet the electoral threshold requirement to merge with other parties, he said.
The new National Republic Party (Nasrep), which has been linked to the youngest son of former President Suharto, Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra, is likely to capitalize on this new clause, Yunarto said.
"A clause that would allow them to merge with a bigger party is a blessing for them. And it is likely to be agreed on by all the factions at the House," he said.
Pramono said any new political parties would also have to be ready to pass the verification process by the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights.
On Monday, Nasrep, the National Democrat Party and the National Unity Party announced that they had registered to take part in the 2014 legislative and presidential polls.