"We have agreed to set the threshold at three percent to accommodate medium and small political parties. But if big parties insist on setting it at four percent or more we will walk out," the party`s secretary general, Imam Nahrawi, said here on Monday.
He said PKB had set the threshold at three percent also to anticipate possible loss of million of votes.
"In the last general elections 15 million votes were gone. So we insist on four percent parliamentary threshold 30 millions of votes will certainly be gone. We would not like to see it happen," he said.
He said efforts by big parties to set the threshold at four percent or more would be counterproductive against efforts to restore public confidence in political parties PKB is trying to do right now.
He said power may not be used to eradicate public confidence.
"If any party wishes to reduce the number of political parties I think revision is not necessary. What the government only needs to do is merely just a government regulation in lieu of law (Perppu) to recognize two of three political parties," he said.
"The government can also issue a Perppu on party fusion to limit the number of political parties to five, six or just seven. So, the law on political parties need not be revised," he said.
He said the parliamentary threshold must be set based upon fundamental aims and not only on mere percentage to cut the number of political parties.
"The number of political parties indeed need to be cut by raising the percentage of votes parties have to be able to collect in order to be eligible for participating in the general elections. But raising the percentage with a political aim and for the purpose of stabilization of democracy are different," he said. ***3***
(Uu.H-YH/HAJM/A014)
Editor: Priyambodo RH
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
