Jakarta. The House of Representatives began its new five-year term on Tuesday without the representation of the Muslim-based United Development Party (PPP) for the first time since the general elections in 1977.

Since its founding in 1973, PPP has always won House seats in every election except in the last election in February, where it failed to meet the 4 percent threshold of the popular seats.

PPP accumulated 5.88 million votes across all 38 provinces from the February 14 general elections, representing 3.87 percent of 151.8 million popular votes overall.

The party has filed lawsuits with the Constitutional Court alleging vote theft in several districts in its attempts to boost the overall vote count to meet the threshold but were rejected.

PPP’s absence means that the lower chamber of the national legislature now has eight parties, including the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), the Golkar Party, the Great Indonesia Movement Party (Geerindra), the National Democratic Party (Nasdem), the National Awakening Party (PKB), the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), the Democratic Party, and the National Mandate Party (PAN).

With just over 16 percent of the vote, PDI-P is the largest party in the House but its share has been reduced from 21 percent in the previous term.

The Golkar Party is the second-largest faction in the House, only 1 percentage point behind PDI-P. Gerindra saw its position slip from second to third but its chairman, Prabowo Subianto, won the presidency and will assume power on October 20.

PDI-P is the sole party that has not officially announced support for the future government under Prabowo. If it opts to play an opposition role, PDI-P will face a pro-government coalition that controls nearly 85 percent of House seats.

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