Hasto: Determining the Parliamentary Threshold through Dialogue and Studies

Jakarta (ANTARA) - Secretary General of PDI Perjuangan Hasto Kristiyanto stated that determining the ideal parliamentary threshold figure would be established through a political process and studies, considering that the reform era has produced several elections, thereby solidifying the people’s preferences for political parties.

“The ideal figure will be built through political processes and studies, given that the reform era has resulted in several elections, so the people’s preferences towards political parties should be increasingly solid,” Hasto said in Jakarta on Sunday.

He explained that each political party has its own interests regarding the proposed parliamentary threshold magnitude.

According to him, determining the parliamentary threshold needs to be viewed from the perspective of post-reform democracy philosophy. After the end of President Soeharto’s government, Indonesia entered a democratisation phase with elections as a mechanism for leadership regeneration held periodically every five years.

“In the early reform period, political parties were given wide space to develop, so the first election was participated in by 48 political parties,” he said.

He stated that the parliamentary threshold is a mechanism for the people to determine which political parties are entitled to send representatives to parliament.

Over time, the threshold has been gradually increased to encourage consolidation of the number of political parties in the DPR and improve governance effectiveness.

“PDI Perjuangan is in dialogue with other parties, including non-parliamentary parties that also have rights to their existence,” he said.

He added that the results of the dialogue are expected to lead to a joint agreement regarding the parliamentary threshold magnitude.