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n extra player has officially joined the already messy game.

Regardless of its position as a counterpart to the legislative body, the government has played its political card as its desperate attempt to retain a high presidential nomination threshold, or the minimum percentage of the vote a party or coalition of parties needs in the legislative election to nominate a presidential candidate.

After failing to persuade political factions at the House of Representatives, Home Minister Tjahjo Kumolo warned that the government might retract itself from the deliberation of the election bill, which will serve as the legal basis for the 2019 legislative and presidential elections.

“The government will retract its participation from the deliberation if parties fail to achieve a compromise by Monday,” he said at the State Palace on Thursday.

Tjahjo is a senior politician of the ruling Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), which is likely to nominate President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo for reelection. He also said that the government would push for a threshold of between 20 and 25 percent “at all cost.”

Because 2019 will see presidential and legislative elections take place simultaneously, lawmakers have agreed that the threshold will be based on the votes garnered in the 2014 legislative election.

The PDI-P won the 2014 poll with 19 percent of the vote. It would find it politically much easier to nominate Jokowi for reelection if the threshold was set at 20 percent or above, while at the same time that would make it more difficult for other parties to nominate candidates. The Golkar Party, the NasDem Party and the Hanura Party have declared they would back Jokowi’s reelection bid. Golkar and NasDem are on the same page with PDI-P in terms of the presidential threshold.

The Gerindra Party has said that its chairman and Jokowi’s rival in 2014, Prabowo Subianto, would also run for president again.

With 11.8 percent of the vote in 2014, Gerindra would have to form a coalition with other parties to nominate Prabowo again, if the threshold is set at 20 percent.

Gerindra initially pushed for a zero threshold but later said it would accept a threshold of not more than 15 percent.

Tjahjo, who represents the government in the deliberation, has repeatedly said the government was open for negotiation on the crucial issues, except for the presidential threshold.

“If the government retracts its participation, [Jokowi] may issue a Perppu [Regulation in Lieu of Law],” Tjahjo said. Issued by the president, a Perppu carries the same level of power as a law.

The 2011 law on legislation stipulates that a request to retract participation from a bill’s deliberation must be agreed on by both the House and the government.

In the case of the election bill, should the government’s threat to retract materialize, the deliberation would be considered stalled, which could pave the way for Jokowi to issue a Perppu as an emergency step.

The deliberation has been extended a few times, and it must be passed into law by the end of June to allow the General Elections Commission (KPU) enough time for preparation.

Speaking on the sidelines of Jokowi’s visit in Cilacap, Central Java, State Secretary Pratikno shrugged off concerns about the possibility of a deadlock in the deliberation.

When asked whether the government would issue a Perppu, Pratikno said, “there has been no talk about it yet.”