Gerakan Rakyat Party Pushes for Zero Per Cent Parliamentary Threshold
The Gerakan Rakyat Party is urging the parliamentary threshold in the forthcoming general election to be reduced to zero per cent. Gerakan Rakyat Party Chairman Sahrin Hamid argues that the current threshold implementation has prevented voter voices from being properly converted into parliamentary representation.
According to Sahrin, once citizens have exercised their voting rights, there should be no reason their votes are not accumulated. “That is why, following a zero per cent presidential threshold, we are also pushing for a zero per cent parliamentary threshold,” he stated at the party’s national headquarters in South Jakarta on Friday, 27 February 2026.
Sahrin suggested that simplification of the threshold should occur at the faction level. He noted that such simplification practices have been implemented before. “I believe such simplification can achieve balance. Regional areas have also practised this, so this is not a new matter,” he said.
The Constitutional Court, in Case Number 116/PUU-XVIII/2023, ruled to eliminate the 4 per cent parliamentary threshold stipulated in the Election Law. In its legal reasoning, the Court determined that the parliamentary threshold provision does not align with the principle of popular sovereignty, electoral fairness, and violates constitutional guarantees of legal certainty. The Court stipulated that the Election Law provision is constitutionally conditional for implementation in the 2029 election and thereafter, provided amendments are made.
Discussion of the Electoral Law revision is currently underway in the People’s Consultative Assembly. Commission II has held several public hearing sessions with election experts and academics. One of the key matters under discussion concerns the parliamentary threshold.
Several parties in the legislature are still analysing the ideal figure for the threshold. The NasDem Party, for example, has proposed raising the parliamentary threshold in the 2029 election from 4 to 7 per cent.
NasDem politician Muhammad Rifqinizamy Karyasuda stated that the increase would have positive effects. For instance, political parties would be automatically compelled to reform themselves and strengthen their structure to obtain votes in every contest.
He acknowledged that the parliamentary threshold results in millions of votes being wasted due to candidates or parties failing to reach the threshold. However, elimination is not necessarily the answer.
“The parliamentary threshold remains necessary; it is essential for establishing institutional strength in political parties,” said the Commission II Chairman.
Arya Fernandes, Head of the Politics and Social Change Department at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), stated that there is actually no ideal figure for determining the parliamentary threshold size. The threshold is typically determined by political decision, not mechanical calculation. He illustrated that if the 2029 election threshold were set at a low 1 per cent, it would create extreme multiparty fragmentation, which could result in legislative deadlocks and political instability in the legislature.
Conversely, he noted, if the threshold were set higher than the current level, the consequence would be reduced representation and significantly higher numbers of votes not converted into seats.
Arya proposed reducing the threshold over two election cycles: 3.5 per cent for 2029 and 3 per cent thereafter. He cited the previous election where a 3.5 per cent threshold reduced wasted votes from 17 million to 11 million.