The Constitutional Court (MK) considers that the parliamentary threshold provision of 4 percent is not in line with the principles guaranteed by the Constitution, therefore suggesting that it be discarded by the 2029 election.

Feri Amsari, an expert in constitutional law, appreciates the MK's move to remove the 4 percent parliamentary threshold as he believes that the removal of the threshold will be beneficial for small parties and the people in general.

"The domination of large political parties by deliberately guillotine, beating, or eliminating the electability of small parties is a serious constitutional problem," Feri said as quoted by Katadata on Friday, March 1, 2024.

Through this MK decision, the Indonesian House of Representatives (DPR) can become more diverse ad the votes and electability of small parties will no longer be converted to large parties because they do not pass the threshold.

The 4 percent parliamentary threshold is regulated in Article 414 paragraph 1 of Law No. 7/2017 on the General Elections, which states, "Political Parties Contesting in the Election must meet the vote acquisition threshold of at least 4 percent of the number of valid votes nationally to be included in the determination obtaining seats as members of the DPR."

Previously, the Association for Elections and Democracy (PERLUDEM) questioned whether the implementation of the parliamentary threshold resulted in the loss of the people's vote or the large number of voters' votes that were not converted into seats in the DPR.

Khoirunnisa Nur Agustyati, Executive Director of PERLUDEM, filed for a judicial review of the Article 414 with the Constitutional Court on February 29, 2024. The petitioner mentioned the relationship between parliamentary thresholds and the proportional electoral system. The applicant argued that the parliamentary threshold is one of the important variables of the electoral system which will have a direct impact on the process of converting votes into seats.

The Court held a hearing and issued a ruling on March 1, 2024 that stipulates the 4 percent threshold provision was not in line with the principles of popular sovereignty, electoral fairness, and violated legal certainty guaranteed by the Constitution.

The Court said in its legal considerations that it found no basis for rationality in determining the figure or percentage of at least 4 percent, which was carried out using clear calculation methods and arguments or rationality.

Saldi Isra, Deputy Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court, said the parliamentary threshold clearly has an impact on the conversion of valid votes into the number of DPR seats, which is related to the proportionality of election results.

This means that, when placed in the basis of the argument for the proportional electoral system adopted, the number of votes obtained by the political parties participating in the election is in line with the seats won in parliament so that the election results are proportional.

For this reason, a proportional election system should minimize wasted votes so that election results are not categorized as disproportionate.

However, the Constitutional Court stated that the norms of this article are conditionally constitutional and are only applicable in the 2029 elections and beyond. The 4 percent threshold remains valid foor use in the 2024 elections.