Tiny party joins PPP

Tiny party joins PPP

JAKARTA: The Umat Sovereign Party (PKU) will merge with the
United Development Party (PPP) so as to contest the 2004 general
election, an official said on Tuesday.

"We have decided to merge with the PPP," PKU chairman Asnawi
Latief said after a meeting with Vice President Hamzah Haz, who
chairs the PPP, on Tuesday.

Quoting Hamzah, Asnawi said the fusion was strategic and
politically valuable, not only for Muslim-based parties in
general but to the two parties in particular.

Asnawi said he would call on the chairman of the Reformed PPP,
Zainuddin MZ, to rejoin the PPP.

Under the general election law, a party that failed to gain
more than 2 percent of the vote in the 1999 election does not
qualify to contest the 2004 election. They can form coalitions
with other parties to meet the electoral threshold or merge with
parties that are already qualified to contest the election.

In the 1999 election, the PKU won only one seat in the House
of Representatives and 30 seats in local legislatures. -- Antara