Markus Junianto Sihaloho – The National Mandate Party is so pessimistic the proposed new legislative election law will pass that it has proposed giving up and making minor revisions to the existing 2008 law instead.

"If we're forced to because of a deadlock, I suggest we go back to the old law, with improvements. For example, the second and third counts [of ballots, conducted in Jakarta] were controversial during the last elections. Do them at the regional electoral office," Taufik Kurniawan, the secretary general of the party known as PAN, said on Thursday.

The legislative schedule for 2012, which all parties in the House of Representatives have agreed to, has lawmakers due to pass the new electoral law by March.

But disagreement over aspects of the law, especially the legislative threshold – the minimum percentage of votes a party must secure to gain a place in the House – has prevented the draft law from approaching finalization.

In the 2009 elections, the threshold was set at 2.5 percent, which allowed nine parties to enter the House. But the party that currently enjoys the greatest support in surveys, Golkar, would like to raise that to 5 percent for the next elections, and eventually to 10 percent.

In survey results released on Monday by the Center for Policy Studies and Strategic Development, all but three parties – Golkar, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and the Democratic Party – polled less than 5 percent. PAN and the Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra) tied for fourth place with 4.8 percent, while the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) and the United Development Party (PPP) received 4.6 percent and 4.1 percent, respectively.

Given the disagreements, Taufik argued that it would be unfair simply to put the draft law to a vote, as the majority could disenfranchise smaller voices.

Instead, Taufik said, the old law could be used, with improvements based on decisions from the Constitutional Court regarding several electoral procedure issues, handed down in the wake of the 2009 elections.

PKS's Mahfudz Siddiq said he also saw the debate on the bill as heading toward a stalemate, but he did not agree with Taufik that it should be scrapped.

He said the House debate should be short-circuited with a high-level discussion. "If it's debated in the House, it will never be settled. We need direct communication between the leaders of each party," Mahfudz said.