PKS Proposes Maintaining the Current Parliamentary Threshold
The Secretary-General of the PKS party’s Central Executive Board, Muhammad Kholid, stated that his party proposes that the parliamentary threshold for the 2029 general election remain at the current level.
In the 2024 election, the parliamentary threshold, which serves as a requirement for political parties to gain seats in parliament, was 4%. Of the 18 parties that contested, only 8 parties obtained votes exceeding the 4% threshold. “We believe that 4% is already quite good,” said Kholid in a written statement on Thursday, February 26, 2026.
He believes that eliminating or increasing the threshold would spark debate. However, in principle, the parliamentary threshold should remain in place, even if it risks wasting votes because they are not converted into seats.
According to him, the parliamentary threshold is still necessary to prevent excessive fragmentation and the emergence of an extreme multi-party system that could potentially create government instability.
Therefore, he said, PKS suggests conducting a special simulation with the aim of finding an ideal number to determine the parliamentary threshold. This simulation can be done by calculating and adjusting the number of commissions and committees in the DPR.
“If currently there are 13 Commissions and 6 committees, the parliamentary threshold could be converted to be equivalent to the number of existing commissions and committees,” said Kholid.
The Head of the Department of Politics and Social Change at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Arya Fernandes, explained that there is no ideal number to determine the parliamentary threshold.
He said that in electoral studies, two models are known for regulating the parliamentary threshold. First, the formal threshold, or the threshold that is determined or based on political and legal considerations from policymakers.
The legal considerations of policymakers, he said, could be whether the policy desires representation, political stability, fragmentation, or high effectiveness.
The second model, Arya continued, is the natural threshold, or the threshold that arises naturally based on choices regarding electoral design, such as the design of district magnitude or the allocation of seats per electoral district.
According to him, the varying needs in each country, whether it adheres to a presidential or parliamentary system, make the determination of the parliamentary threshold more dynamic and pragmatic.
“The threshold is generally determined based on political decisions, not mechanical calculations,” said Arya on Thursday, February 26, 2026.
Last year, the Constitutional Court in case number 116/PUU-XVIII/2023 decided to abolish the 4% parliamentary threshold as stipulated in the Election Law.
In its legal considerations, the Court argued that the provision of the parliamentary threshold is not in line with the principles of popular sovereignty, electoral justice, and violates the legal certainty guaranteed by the constitution.
The Court continued, the provision of Article 414 paragraph (1) of the Election Law is conditionally constitutional to be applied in the 2029 election and beyond, as long as changes have been made.
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