Ulma Haryanto – The Justice and Human Rights Ministry said on Monday that out of the 14 new political parties registered for the 2014 general elections, only three had met the requirements for regional representation with one month left before the deadline.
"After almost two weeks of verification, we expect that, at the most, only three political parties qualify," said Aidir Amin Daud, the ministry's director general of administrative law.
However, he declined to disclose the names of the three parties, only saying that the other 11 parties still had one month left to get in compliance.
"We will give them one month to complete [the regional representation requirements]. If they fail, they will be automatically disqualified," Aidir said. He added that most parties had failed to demonstrate they had nationwide networks.
In order to be eligible, a party must have regional offices in each of the 33 provinces and be represented in 75 percent of all districts and 50 percent of all sub-districts.
"On average, their regional representation is pretty good, although still insufficient. If the [requirements] are not fulfilled, then they won't be eligible for the 2014 presidential election," Aidir said.
Beritasatu.com quoted an unnamed source as saying the three parties that had been verified were the Independent People's Union Party (SRI), the NasDem Party and the Insulinde National Prosperity Party (PKBN).
SRI earned substantial media coverage after it said it wanted to nominate as its presidential candidate former finance minister and current World Bank managing director Sri Mulyani Indrawati. She recently hosed down such expectations, however.
The PKBN was founded by Yenny Wahid, a daughter of the late President Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid, after leading a splinter faction of the National Awakening Party (PKB) since 2004.
When contacted by the Jakarta Globe, most of the parties had not yet been informed of the results of the verification. "Of course we hope that we are among the three," said Sugeng Suparwoto, NasDem chairman.
For Yenny, the 2014 elections are something to look forward to. "We have to focus on the now and the future," she said.
Yunarto Wijaya, a political analyst from Charta Politika, said most parties simply relied on vague idealism or a well-known sympathetic figure but did not have supporting political infrastructure at the regional level.
"Of course it is difficult for new parties, because currently the infrastructure is monopolized by medium to large parties that have participated in at least two elections," he said.
"NasDem, on the other hand, did the reverse by establishing regional support first." He added that the PKBN stood a good chance of verification because it was using the network of the Nadhlatul Ulama, the country's largest Islamic movement, that was once chaired by Yenny's father.
Among the 14 new parties that had registered to take part in the 2014 elections were the National Republic Party (Nasrep), which was founded by Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra Suharto, the youngest son of the late President Suharto.