List of political parties in Indonesia
Since 1999, Indonesia has had a multi-party system. In the four legislative elections since the fall of the New Order regime, no political party has won an overall majority of seats, resulting in coalition governments.
All political parties must have Pancasila as one of their ideologies, a remnant of its sacred status as single ideology, especially during the New Order.
Overview
Indonesian political party system is regulated by Law No.2/2008 on political parties. The law defines political party as "a national organisation founded by like-minded Indonesian citizens with common goals to fulfil common interest and to defend the unity of the nation based on Pancasila and the national constitution, UUD 1945".Political parties must register themselves to the Ministry of Law and Human Rights to be recognised by the authority. The law dictates political parties' registration criteria shall include a notarial act recognise the party establishment and party constitution; a document describing party symbols; address of party headquarters and prove of distribution of party local offices in provinces, and cities and regencies; and a prove of party bank account. The law also dictates minimum membership of new political parties on 50 persons, with the percentage of woman members and allocation of woman members to party offices are set on a minimum of 30%.
The party must undergo another registration process in order to participate in national elections; the registration shall be submitted to the General Elections Commission. Political parties whose had their registration declined by the electoral commission due to failure to satisfy administrative criteria or other reasons, are able to appeal their rejection to the Election Oversight Committee.
Party principles
Indonesian political party should recognise the superiority of Pancasila and the national constitution, yet the law tolerates political parties to set other ideology as long as it does not violate the Pancasila and the constitution. The law explicitly prohibits establishment of a communist party, and political parties are banned from adopting communism as the party ideology.In essence, Indonesian political parties differs little on party policy and ideology. The only major distinction among Indonesian parties is on their position whether to allow Islam plays more role in public affairs or not.This tendency resulting in several Indonesian political parties to brand itself as the part of nationalist-religious broad coalition in order to attract potential voters from both Muslim and the secular nationalist groups.
The language of left-right political spectrum is seldom used in Indonesia - in distinct from other countries of the world. This tendency is the result of the New Order regime under Suharto that anathematised left-wing politics after the Indonesian mass killings of 1965-66 against members and supporters of the Communist Party of Indonesia. The New Order regime further stigmatised left-wing ideals as those espoused only by the communists, discouraging Indonesian political parties to identify itself as a left-wing movement lest they losing potential voters and be accused as communist. This tendency survives even beyond the 1998 Reform, partly due to the new regime persistence to maintain anti-communist law in force.
Parties represented in legislatures
Parties represented in national and regional legislatures
Parties represented only in regional legislatures
These parties participates on national elections - the last was in 2019 - yet failed to attain a single seat in the DPR due to failing to pass 4% parliamentary threshold. Notable failure was of Hanura, that was failed to return to DPR despite winning seats in 2014 election. Despite electoral failure in the DPR, these parties successfully gain seat in regional parliaments.Aceh special autonomy statutes allowed formation of local political parties to compete only in Aceh local parliament. Although the party number is serialised from the national list, Aceh local parties only appeared in ballot paper circulating in Aceh province.
Extra-parliamentary parties
These political parties have no representation in either national or regional parliaments.The term "partai gurem" is commonly used by Indonesian media to refer to these political parties. The term is initially referred to political parties that won a very small number of parliamentary seat and after the 2004 election, to political parties that have no chance to surpass parliamentary threshold to gain representation on the People's Representative Council. These political parties are often perceived to be lacking in organisational structure and their founder is only interested in attracting media attention.
These parties often had their registration to participate in elections declined by the General Elections Commission due to party failure to satisfy registration criteria set by the commission, which includes completeness of party document, location of party permanent offices, minimum membership and minimum percentage of woman members. Parties that had their registration rejected often resorted to appealing their rejection to the Electoral Oversight Committee, with varied success.
Historical political parties
Political parties participating in 1955">1955 Indonesian legislative election">1955 and 1971">1971 Indonesian legislative election">1971 elections
Political parties of the New Order">New Order (Indonesia)">New Order
After his rise into power, President Soeharto showed his discontent to multiple political parties, arguing that the failure of Konstituante in 1955-1959 was caused by political party deadlock, and it should not be repeated in his regime. He further proposed existing political parties to unite based on their ideological essence – either spiritual or materialist. Political parties reaction to calls of Suharto was generally positive, with Islamic parties claimed that party fusion was in line with their last National Islamic Congress resolution agreed in 1969, and a party alliance of "Democratic Development Group" was formed by PNI, IPKI, Parkindo, Murba Party, dan Catholic Party to compete in 1971 election.After 1971 election, New Order regime reiterates its call for political parties to fuse, and a MPR ordinance regulating political parties grouping issued in 1973 further pressured political parties to merge.
All Islamic political parties merged to form United Development Party on 5 January 1973, and the remaining nationalist and non-Islamic political parties united to form Indonesian Democratic Party on 10 January 1973. Golkar, officially a "federation of public organisations" instead of a proper political party, immune to the fusion and remain dominant for the entire period of the New Order.
The parties for the last time participated in 1997 election, and the three-party system survived until the collapse of the New Order in 1998 Reformasi. Ensuing political liberalisation allowed establishment of multitudes of new political parties, with the number of political parties participating in 1999 election significantly jumped to 48 parties.
After the Reform, PPP survived and continue to participate in all following elections after 1999, as well as Golkar that reformed itself as a political party. The PDI failed to imitate the Golkar and PPP success after government intervention to unseat Chairman Megawati Soekarnoputri from her seat in 1996 causing PDI support to collapse in 1997 election. PDI votes further eroded as support instead went to its breakaway Indonesian Democratic Party - Struggle led by Megawati in 1999 election, resulting on the party to won only two seats compared to 153 seats of PDI-P. After poor electoral performance and failure to register for 2004 election, PDI reformed itself as Indonesian Democratic Vanguard Party in 2003.
Political parties post-Reform">Reformasi (Indonesia)">Reform
Parties participating only in 1999 elections
Following political liberalisation after the collapse of the New Order regime in 1998 Reformasi, registration for new political parties jumped significantly. As the result, the following 1999 election had 48 political parties competing for DPR seats, compared to the previous 1997 election that saw only 2 political parties plus Golkar.Several parties claimed inheritance from former political parties existed prior to the New Order era, resulting in parties sharing similar political party name, with faction names as the only characteristics that made those parties distinct from each other. Example on this case was on claimants of former Indonesian National Party and Masyumi Party.
Most of the parties failed to gain even a single seat due to lack of votes. After the new electoral law authorise the use of parliamentary threshold to determine division of DPR seats, those parties were forced to reorganise itself in order to be able to register for the next 2004 election.
This is the list of political parties participating only in 1999 election and failed to participate in the next 2004 election.