Mahfud Proposes Vote-Joining Scheme Modelled on the New Order to Address the Impact of the Parliamentary Threshold

JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com - Former Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal, and Security Affairs Mahfud MD has proposed a scheme to merge political party votes as a solution to address the large amount of votes wasted by the parliamentary threshold. He said one option worth considering is a mechanism similar to the stembus accord implemented during the New Order era. ‘In the past in the New Order period, the stembus accord merged votes until reaching a certain number of factions,’ Mahfud said during the Parliamentary Threshold Seminar quoted from Osotvchannel’s YouTube channel on Wednesday (4/3/2026). ‘For example, parties that do not reach the threshold could join with other parties to reach a certain amount of votes, for example, the number of seats is as such,’ he said. Mahfud stressed that the scheme is not about distributing votes as in the current mechanism, but about grouping the gains of parties that do not reach the threshold. ‘I agree with Pak Yusril. So parties that do not reach the threshold that is determined simply join, not to be divided as now. So whatever the amount is, it depends on which electoral district they gain, which district, and then calculated,’ he said. However, Mahfud notes that the vote-merge mechanism should be agreed before the election to avoid potential political turmoil. ‘Then whatever the result, these parties will join. Those not involved in that, no,’ he said. According to Mahfud, reaching agreement from the outset is important to avoid unilateral shifts in support after the election results are known. ‘Yes, because if not, there could be parties joining the bigger party on their own, which could also confuse voters,’ he said. Yet at the national level, parties that fail to pass the threshold can combine their votes to form a joint faction. ‘In my view, that would be fairer,’ he concluded. Earlier reports indicated that the idea of changing the parliamentary threshold arose alongside plans to revise the Election Law by the DPR. A number of political parties have different views on the size of the parliamentary threshold to be proposed in the revision to the Election Law, ranging from its removal to maintenance or even a change in its level. However, the proposal is considered too high by some others.