PAN: Raising the Parliamentary Threshold Creates Injustice
Deputy Chairman of the National Mandate Party (PAN), Viva Yoga Maulana, has assessed that proposals to raise the parliamentary threshold could create injustice, as more ballots would fail to convert into party seats. Viva expressed this during a regional working meeting briefing for PAN’s central and local executives in Surabaya, East Java, on Sunday, 10 May 2026.
According to him, raising the parliamentary threshold above 4 per cent would eliminate opportunities for several parties to secure seats in the House of Representatives (DPR). He deemed this unfair, as parties that fail would still receive votes.
“The higher the threshold, the more disproportionate the election becomes and the lower its representational value,” Viva stated in a written release on Monday, 11 May 2026.
The event also featured PAN Chairman and Coordinating Minister for Food Affairs Zulkifli Hasan, East Java Governor Khofifah Indar Parawansa, Deputy Governor of East Java Emil Dardak, and PAN Secretary General Eko Hendro Purnomo or Patrio.
Viva described arguments for raising the parliamentary threshold to simplify the party system as contrived. The Deputy Minister of Transmigration disagreed that an increase would prevent fragmentation of DPR factions.
On the contrary, he believes that diversity of parties in parliament could provide more perspectives in managing field issues. “Dynamics, even bickering in the DPR, are normal. In fact, when there is dynamics in the DPR, it is seen as a way to prevent horizontal conflicts in society,” he said.
Viva emphasised that PAN proposes lowering the parliamentary threshold, rather than raising it. The same proposal was previously made by PAN Deputy Chairman Eddy Soeparno, who wants the threshold lowered to 0 per cent.
In 2024, the Constitutional Court ruled to abolish the 4 per cent parliamentary threshold provision that had been regulated in Law No. 7 of 2017 on Elections. The constitutional judges agreed that the threshold provision was inconsistent with the principles of popular sovereignty, electoral justice, and violated legal certainty guaranteed by the constitution.
The Court stated that the provision in Article 414 paragraph 1 of the Election Law, which still sets the parliamentary threshold at 4 per cent, remains conditionally constitutional for use in the 2024 election. “Conditionally constitutional to be applied in the 2029 DPR election and subsequent elections provided that amendments have been made,” said MK Chief Justice Suhartoyo.
Meanwhile, CSIS Political Department Head Arya Fernandes proposed that lawmakers gradually lower the parliamentary threshold over the next two general elections. “First, lower it from 4 per cent to 3.5 per cent in the 2029 election, applicable at the national and regional levels,” he said during a public hearing on revisions to the Election Law at Commission II of the Jakarta House of Representatives on Tuesday, 20 January 2026.
Then, the parliamentary threshold is proposed to be lowered again for the 2034 election to 3 per cent. Thus, this gradual reduction is expected to facilitate decision-making to avoid legislative deadlock while ensuring a degree of representation.
Additionally, he stated that electoral science does not recognise a universally ideal threshold. Arya said there is no global consensus on the size of the parliamentary threshold.
He explained that setting a threshold that is too low or too high carries its own risks. A threshold that is too low, he said, risks causing an extreme multi-party system in the legislature.
Whereas if it is too high, it could reduce the level of representation and increase the number of wasted votes. Arya assessed that a 3.5 per cent parliamentary threshold could reduce the number of votes that do not convert into seats.