Here's What Academics Suggest Regarding the Proposal for DPRD Parliamentary Threshold
The discourse on applying a parliamentary threshold for legislative elections of members of provincial and regency/city regional representative councils (DPRD) is being widely discussed not only by political parties but also by academics and other election activists.
University of Indonesia lecturer in constitutional law, Titi Anggraini, stated that lawmakers should not attempt to create policies that could repeat previous electoral issues.
“For DPRD, it is sufficient to continue applying the faction threshold,” said Titi via WhatsApp message on Saturday, 9 May 2026.
According to her, if the House of Representatives is concerned about the potential for an extreme multi-party system, the alternative is not to impose a threshold like that applied in national legislative elections.
To prevent extreme political fragmentation in DPRD, said Titi, the DPR or the government could continue the existing policy, namely the application of a faction threshold. Currently, seat allocations in electoral districts for DPRD elections are a minimum of three seats and a maximum of 12 seats.
“It is best if seat allocations are aligned with those in the DPR, namely a minimum of three and a maximum of 10. This will encourage the formation of an effective threshold without having to eliminate valid votes,” she said.
Nevertheless, Titi continued, the Constitutional Court in several of its decisions, such as Decision No. 52/PUU-X/2012 and 62/PUU-XXII/2024, has regulated the provisions for applying thresholds.
In Decision 52/PUU-X/2012, the Constitutional Court stated that the threshold only applies to DPR elections, not including provincial or regency/city DPRD elections. Meanwhile, in Decision 62/PUU-XXII/2024, the MK stated that it abolishes the nomination threshold for presidential and vice-presidential elections.
“I believe that since the nomination threshold for presidential elections has been abolished, the same should apply to regional elections. Because regional elections are an electoral regime,” said Titi.
Researcher from the Association for Elections and Democracy, Kahfi Adlan Hafidz, said that applying a threshold to DPRD member elections has a high potential to widen the risk of wasting valid votes.
“If the goal is improvement, applying this is the same as replicating the problem to another realm,” he said.
Kahfi continued that the absence of a threshold in DPRD so far has never triggered problems. Because political fragmentation can still be managed through the application of a faction formation threshold.
“This means that the absence of a threshold in DPRD does not immediately make political fragmentation in DPRD too extreme,” he said.
The proposal to apply a threshold up to DPRD member elections was put forward by Deputy General Chairman of the Golkar Party, Ahmad Doli Kurnia Tandjung. He assessed that a threshold for DPRD member elections could be applied in stages or smaller than the threshold applied for DPR elections.
“For example, 5 percent for DPR. Well, for provincial DPRD it could be 4 percent and for regency/city 3 percent,” said Doli when contacted on Tuesday, 22 April 2026.
Similar to Doli, Chairman of Commission II of the DPR, Muhammad Rifqinizamy Karyasuda, proposed applying a threshold to DPRD member elections. The reason is that this policy is deemed important to create effective governance.
“We propose that the threshold applies not only at the national level, but also at the provincial and regency/city levels,” said the NasDem Party politician on Thursday, 24 April 2026.