PAN Rejects Parliamentary Threshold Increase Above 4%
The Central Executive Board (DPP) of the National Mandate Party (PAN) has expressed objections to the discourse regarding increasing the parliamentary threshold (PT) to above 4%. This stance is based on concerns that such an increase could potentially contradict rulings by the Constitutional Court (MK).
Vice Chairman of the PAN DPP, Viva Yoga Mauladi, explained that Constitutional Court Decision Number 116/PUU-XXI/2023 mandates that the determination of the threshold must consider aspects of political representation. This is intended to prevent a large number of valid voter votes from being wasted or lost during elections.
“PAN’s position is not due to fear of failing to secure seats in the DPR RI, as PAN has proven to successfully enter Senayan from the 1999 to 2024 elections,” Viva Yoga stated in a written statement in Jakarta on Thursday (17/9).
According to Viva, the higher the parliamentary threshold, the greater the tendency for valid votes to fail to be converted into seats in the DPR. This condition is assessed to create a high level of disproportionality in elections, thereby lowering the value of democratic representation.
He referred to Constitutional Court Decision Number 45/PUU-XXII/2024, which states that determining the size of the PT without adequate methods and arguments can cause an imbalance between the national valid votes and the number of seats obtained by political parties.
Based on data presented by Viva, during the 2024 Legislative Election with a 4% threshold, there were 17,304,303 valid national votes (11.4%) that could not be converted into seats. This figure is an increase compared to the 2019 Election, which recorded 13,595,842 wasted votes (9.71%), and the 2014 Election, which saw 2,964,975 votes (2.37%).
While acknowledging that there is no absolute ideal figure for the PT, Viva emphasised that every change must remain within the framework of maintaining the proportionality of the electoral system. He reminded that the spirit of simplifying political parties should not ignore the rights of the people’s votes.
“The idea of simplifying political parties in the DPR must not clash with the necessity of maintaining the principle of proportionality in election results,” he asserted.
PAN’s stance emerges amidst the dynamics of discussions regarding the revision of the Election Law. Previously, the Secretary General of the Gerindra Party DPP, Sugiono, stated that his party agreed on a parliamentary threshold of 5%. Similarly, the Head of the Honourary Committee of the PDI Perjuangan DPP, Komarudin Watubun, assessed that 5% is an ideal limit to achieve the simplification of political parties in Indonesia.