Ezra Sihite, Agus Triyono, Robertus Wardi & Markus Junianto Sihaloho – Despite more than two years of lobbying and backroom deals, the only significant difference between the 2009 election law and the new bill is the increase of the legislative threshold from 2.5 percent to 3.5 percent.

The new threshold means a party needs to secure at least 3.5 percent of the total national vote in order to gain a place in the House of Representatives.

While the Golkar and Democratic Parties failed in their attempt to institute a higher threshold, analysts agree that a 3.5 percent threshold will maintain the number of factions in the House, repeating the same lengthy lobbying and pork barrel transactions people have seen during the last five years.

The threshold for the 2009 elections was set at 2.5 percent, allowing nine parties to gain seats in the House. "There could be eight or nine factions in the House," said Sebastian Salang, executive director of the Concerned Citizens for the Indonesian Legislature (Formappi).

The House passed on Thursday the 2012 election law, maintaining the adoption of an open electoral system and the method for using all votes in electoral areas.

Sebastian said the 3.5 percent threshold, coupled with pure quota vote allocation, was a victory for small parties in President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's coalition, such as the United Development Party (PPP) and the National Awakening Party (PKB), and small opposition parties like the Greater Indonesian Movement Party (Gerindra) and the People's Conscience Party (Hanura).

With the PPP garnering 5.32 percent of the national vote, the PKB 4.94 percent, Gerindra 4.6 percent and Hanura 3.77 percent in the 2009 election, a higher threshold could wash them out of the House as there is no guarantee they will be able maintain those percentages in 2014.

Meanwhile, the pure quota aspect means that whatever votes a party gets at an electoral area will be used in that area. For example, if Golkar gets 300,000 votes in a specific electoral area and Hanura gets 60,000 votes in the same area, Golkar will get one seat by virtue of the divisor number of 250,000 votes.

That would leave Golkar with 50,000 extra votes. Since Hanura's 60,000 votes are more than Golkar's extra votes, Hanura would get the second seat in that district. Golkar would then lose those 50,000 excess votes.

That's why Golkar, a member of the coalition, wanted a 4 percent threshold from the start, along with the flexibility to reallocate those votes to other candidates in other areas. That would have, in effect, helped reduce the number of factions while minimizing lost votes.

Golkar's deputy secretary general Nurul Arifin expressed her disappointment after the law was passed, claiming that the method was unfair. "This is corruption," Nurul said. "They get a seat without having to have enough votes."

The Democrats initially wanted a higher threshold while supporting Golkar's position in the allocation of votes. Many said this was an attempt to get rid of small but persistent opposition parties such as Gerindra and Hanura.

But the Democrats wavered, giving in to pressure from the small parties in the coalition. "For the sake togetherness, we agreed on 3.5 percent. We are doing our best for the people," senior Democratic Party politician Syarief Hasan said before voting.

Nurul accused the Democrats of turning their backs on their earlier agreement. She said on Friday that two years had been wasted in an attempt to simplify the system.

[With reporting by Suara Pembaruan.]