"It is time to raise the PT. The higher it is, the better. Five percent is not good enough. I think , six or seven percent would be ideal," Arbi Sanit said.Jakarta (ANTARA News) - A political observer from the University of Indonesia, Arbi Sanit, said the ideal parliamentary threshold (PT) for Indonesia`s 2014 general elections was above five percent.
"It is time to raise the PT. The higher it is, the better. Five percent is not good enough. I think , six or seven percent would be ideal," Arbi told ANTARA News by phone on Friday (Jan 6).
Arbi said there were already too many political parties in Indonesia so it was necessary to raise the PT and thereby force small parties to merge into a larger party.
He said ideally there should only be two political parties in the country, namely the election winner and the opposition.
"It would be more effective if there were only two parties in Indonesia : the election winner and the opposition, so that governmental activities can run smoothly," he said.
Arbi added if the PT was raised, the small parties were most likely to lose in general elections so that they would have no other choice but to merge and build one big party.
"If they (small parties) could build one big party together, the number of parties in the 2014 general elections would automatically decrease and people would not feel confused in making their choice," he said.
The PT for the 2014 general election would be stipulated in a new bill being deliberated by the House of Representatives. In the old general elections law the PT was set at 2.5 percent which meant that only parties with at least 2.5 percent of the total vote could be represented in the parliament.(*)
Editor: Heru Purwanto
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