Four more parties set to merge with Gerindra

The patron of the Gerindra Party, Prabowo Subianto, said four political parties were set to merge with his party.

“The one who has stated that it would join [Gerindra] is the Republican Party. Three others will also join,” he said on Friday as quoted by Tempointeraktif.com.

Seven other small parties recently merged with the Great Indonesia Movement (Gerindra) Party, including the Reform Star Party (PBR), the Freedom Party, the Labor Party, the Indonesian Nahdlatul Ulama Community Party (PPNUI), the Marhaenism Indonesian National Party, the Sovereignty Party and the Indonesian Union Party (PSI).

Gerindra’s Deputy Chair Fadli Zon said the other three to join his party are the Indonesian Businesspeople and Workers Party (P3I), the National Front Party (Barnas) and the Prosperous Peace Party (PDS).

“They have already carried out communications with Gerindra to merge. They will confederate, but with time, they will fuse,” he said.

Fadli said that several parties that did not make the Parliamentary Threshold are looking into merging with Gerindra.

A parliamentary threshold figure is a mandatory requirement for political parties to be able to place their representatives in the House of Representatives.

The current parliamentary threshold is set at 2.5 percent, meaning that a political party should be able to achieve at least 2.5 percent of national votes in order to get a ticket to the House of Representatives.