February 26, 2026 | 05:24 pm
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The proposal to raise the threshold for parliamentary seats has faced rejection from several political parties, both inside and outside the parliament. The Labor Party is among the parties opposing the proposal.
President of the Labor Party, Said Iqbal, stressed that raising the threshold above 4 percent must be rejected, as it contradicts the constitution, per the Constitutional Court's decision. "This proposal must be rejected," Said stated in a written statement on Thursday, February 26, 2026.
He reminded party factions in the parliament currently revising the Election Law to adhere to Constitutional Court Decision No. 116/PUU-XXI/2023 when regulating the parliamentary threshold.
According to him, the Court’s decision ordered lawmakers to regulate the threshold by lowering it rather than raising it. "Raising it above 4 percent violates morality, rationality, and is intolerant," he said.
Meanwhile, the NasDem Party is among those proposing to raise the parliamentary threshold for the 2029 election from 4 to 7 percent. NasDem Party politician Muhammad Rifqinizamy Karyasuda argued that such an increase would yield positive impacts. For example, he mentioned that political parties would be forced to improve and strengthen their structures to gain votes in every contest.
He acknowledged that the parliamentary threshold causes millions of votes to be wasted when candidates or parties fail to qualify. However, he believes that total removal is not the solution. "The parliamentary threshold is still needed; this is a necessity to establish the institutionalization of political parties," said the Chairperson of the DPR's Commission II.
In case No. 116/PUU-XVIII/2023, the Constitutional Court moved to eliminate the 4 percent parliamentary threshold stipulated in the Election Law. In its legal consideration, the Court stated that the threshold did not align with principles of popular sovereignty or electoral justice and violated the legal certainty guaranteed by the constitution.
The Court further stated that Article 414, paragraph (1) of the Election Law is conditionally constitutional for the 2029 election and beyond, provided changes are made.
In a separate interview, Arya Fernandes, Head of the Department of Politics and Social Change at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), stated that no ideal number exists for the parliamentary threshold. He explained that these thresholds are generally the result of political decisions rather than mechanical calculations.
He noted, for example, that setting a low 1 percent threshold in 2029 could lead to extreme multi-party implications, causing legislative deadlocks and political instability within the DPR.
Conversely, setting the threshold higher than current levels would increase the degree of disproportionate representation and the number of votes not converted into seats. He proposed that the threshold should instead be lowered over two election cycles—to 3.5 percent for 2029 and 3 percent for the following election. For instance, in the previous election, lowering the threshold to 3.5 percent could have reduced the number of wasted votes from 17 million to 11 million.
"The reduction is expected to increase a more inclusive degree of representation," said Arya.
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