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fter two years of discussion, the House of Representatives'€™ Legislation Body (Baleg) has officially rejected a proposal to amend Law No. 42/2008 on presidential elections.

With this decision, the 2014 presidential election will still require parties or coalitions of parties to secure 20 percent of seats in the House or win 25 percent of the popular vote in the legislative election in April next year in order to nominate candidates to contest the presidential election in June.

Baleg chairman Ignatius Mulyono made the announcement following a two-hour meeting, which was little more than a shouting match between those parties that rejected the proposal for an amendment and those in support namely the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS); the United Development Party (PPP); the Great Indonesia Movement (Gerindra) Party, and the People'€™s Conscience (Hanura) Party.

Lawmakers Ahmad Yani from the PPP and Djamal Aziz from Hanura walked out of the meeting room while the majority of their colleagues, especially from the three major parties '€“ the Democratic Party, Golkar Party and the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) argued against lowering the presidential threshold.

Other parties that opposed an amendment to the law included the National Mandate Party (PAN) and the National Awakening Party (PKB).

'€œWe will use the existing law for the election next year because the majority of Baleg members agree that a revision is unnecessary,'€ Mulyono said.

Mulyono, a politician from the ruling Democratic Party, added that he would present the decision to a House plenary session next Tuesday when the House, as a whole, would drop the proposal permanently from the National Legislation Program.

'€œOtherwise, it would still be possible to amend the law in the coming years,'€ he added.

Among supporters of the planned amendment, Gerindra and Hanura were the most adamant in demanding a change in the law, as the decision to maintain the existing presidential threshold would effectively block the candidacy of the parties'€™ respective leaders, Lt. Gen. (ret) Prabowo Subianto and Gen. (ret) Wiranto.

Gerindra currently controls 26 seats in the House, while Hanura has 17.

Martin Hutabarat, a senior Gerindra politician, said the existing law would only allow '€œfamiliar faces'€ to run in the 2014 presidential election.

Martin added, however, that the House decision to kill the proposal for an amendment would not affect Prabowo'€™s plan for the 2014 election.

'€œI'€™m confident that none of the parties will be able to meet the presidential threshold. So, it is likely that all political parties will have to build coalitions,'€ he said.

He also said that Gerindra was open to forming a coalition with other parties as long as Prabowo'€™s idealistic vision was not compromised.

Only the Democratic Party, with 148 lawmakers in the House, would hypothetically meet the current 20 percent threshold, which amounts to 112 seats. The Democrats are followed closely by Golkar, which has 106 seats, and the PDI-P with 94 seats, but they would still have to form coalitions to nominate presidential candidates.