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maller political parties without representatives at the House of Representatives have accused lawmakers of deliberately inserting “undemocratic” rules to edge out minor parties in the legislative election bill.

The long-standing discussion on the amendment of the 2008 Legislative Elections Law at the House’s Legislation Body has stepped forward this week after completing the bill’s draft, ready for deliberation.

Long-debated articles remain on the bill to the chagrin of non-parliamentary parties. One controversial article rules that the parliamentary threshold, set at 3 percent on the bill, will also apply as a threshold for provincial and regional councils. That means a party gaining less than 3 percent of votes nationally, will lose the chance to send representatives to local councils even though the party earns majority votes in certain regions.

“Is that democratic? Will councilors really represent the people in the regency?” Didi Supriyanto, the secretary-general of the National Union Forum (FPN), told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

The FPN groups 17 non-parliamentary political parties with various ideological backgrounds. The parties have previously joined hands to file a judicial review to the Constitutional Court, asking it to annul the newly endorsed 2011 Political Parties Law.

They claim lawmakers have made a party’s eligibility as election contestants difficult to prevent smaller parties from competing in the upcoming 2014 elections. “It is clear that House parties have utilized their power to kick us out of competition. They are too afraid to realize that we might appear far stronger contestants in 2014.”

Twenty-nine of 38 political parties competing in the 2009 elections failed to pass the parliamentary threshold set at 2.5 percent at that time. Even though they do not have seats in Jakarta, dozens managed to win councilor seats at local levels.

The Crescent Star Party (PBB), which gained 1.79 percent in votes, for example, has 417 of their members sitting at provincial, regental and city councils.

Political analyst from the Center of Electoral Reform Hadar Nafiz Gumay said the parliamentary threshold could not be used to determine the eligibility of local politicians to enter local councils. “House legislative elections, the provincial councils, and regency and city councils, are different and cannot be mixed,” Hadar told the Post, adding that if the system stipulated in the bill was implemented, the election result would be undemocratic.

The 3-percent parliamentary threshold itself still prompts mixed responses from political parties. Ganjar Pranowo of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) said it should be at 5 percent. “The lower the threshold is, the more political parties will be in the House,” he said.

The Golkar Party has also proposed 5 percent.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s Democratic Party, meanwhile, considers a 4-percent parliamentary threshold.

The United Development Party, the National Mandate Party, the People’s Awakening Party and the People’s Conscience Party desire the 2.5 threshold set in the 2009 elections.