Political parties eye coalition

JAMBI: Sixteen small parties are eyeing the possibility of a coalition after a Constitutional Court ruling allowing small parties to nominate their own candidates during the direct election of local government chief executives.

M. Rum, an executive with the Nationhood Democracy Unity Party, said that following the recent ruling his party had discussed the possibility to forming a coalition ahead of the election with a number of other parties, including the Democratic Party and the Prosperous Justice Party.

According to the new ruling, a coalition will be valid if the number of votes garnered by all the parties in the coalition amounts to more than 15 percent of the total votes cast in the general election. Before the ruling, only parties that had seats on the relevant local councils were eligible to nominate candidates for the direct local elections. -- JP