List of political parties in Indonesia

Indonesian political party should recognise the superiority of Pancasila, the national philosophy

Indonesian political parties should recognise the superiority of Pancasila and the national constitution, but Indonesian law tolerates the practice of other ideologies not in violation of the Pancasila and the constitution. A 1966 Provisional People's Consultative Assembly resolution still in force today, however, explicitly prohibits establishment of a communist party, and political parties are banned from adopting "Communism/Marxism-Leninism" (sic; explicitly defined in the resolution's corresponding explanatory memorandum to include "the struggle fundaments and tactics taught by ... Stalin, Mao Tse Tung et cetera") as the party ideology.[2]

In essence, Indonesian political parties differs little on party policy and ideology. The only major difference between Indonesian parties is their position as to how major a role Islam, by far the nation's majority religion, should play in public affairs.[6] 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 secular nationalist groups.

The language of the left–right political spectrum is seldom used in Indonesia, in contrast with other countries. This tendency arose as the result of the New Order regime under Suharto which was anathema to left-wing policies after the 1965–66 Indonesian mass killings of members and supporters of the Communist Party of Indonesia.[6] The New Order regime further stigmatised left-wing ideals as those espoused only by communists, discouraging Indonesian political parties from identifying themselves as left-wing movements lest they lose potential voters and be accused as communist. This tendency has survived even after the 1998 Reforms, partly due to the new regime's insistence on keeping anti-communist legislation in force.

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.[7] 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 (DPRD). Although, these political parties, along with other extra-parliamentary parties, are sometimes referred as partai gurem (see below).

Aceh special autonomy statutes allowed formation of local political parties to compete only in the People's Representative Council of Aceh. Although the party number is serialised from the national list, Aceh local parties only appeared in ballot paper circulating in Aceh province.[8]

Logo	Name				Leader	Year		Provincial DPRD seats	City/regency DPRD seats
						Est.	First election
		HANURA		People's Conscience Party Partai Hati Nurani Rakyat	Oesman Sapta Odang	2006	2009	66 / 2,232	746 / 17,340
		PERINDO		Perindo Party Partai Persatuan Indonesia	Hary Tanoesoedibjo	2015	2019	29 / 2,232	379 / 17,340
		PSI		Indonesian Solidarity Party Partai Solidaritas Indonesia	Kaesang Pangarep	2014	2019	13 / 2,232	60 / 17,340
		BERKARYA		Berkarya Party Partai Berkarya	Muchdi Purwopranjono	2016	2019	10 / 2,232	131 / 17,340
		PBB		Crescent Star Party Partai Bulan Bintang	Yusril Ihza Mahendra	1998	1999	7 / 2,232	214 / 17,340
		PKP		Justice and Unity Party Partai Keadilan dan Persatuan	Yussuf Solichien	1999	1999	4 / 2,232	155 / 17,340
		GARUDA		Garuda Party Partai Garda Perubahan Indonesia	Ahmad Ridha Sabana	2015	2019	2 / 2,232	33 / 17,340
Parties represented only in Aceh DPRD
		PA		Aceh Party Partai Aceh	Muzakir Manaf	2007	2009	18 / 81	120 / 620
		PNA		Nanggroe Aceh Party Partai Nanggroe Aceh	Irwandi Yusuf	2011	2014	6 / 81	46 / 620
		PDA		Aceh Abode Party Partai Darul Aceh	Muhibbussabri A. Wahab	2011	2014	3 / 81	17 / 620
		SIRA		Acehnese People's Independent Solidarity Party Partai Soliditas Independen Rakyat Aceh	Muslim Syamsuddin	2007	2009	1 / 81	4 / 620

In the first decade of the 20th century as a natural outcome of the Dutch Ethical Policy, which emphasised the importance of looking after the welfare of the people of the Dutch East Indies, the Dutch were tolerant of the rise and development of Indonesian society.[17] Through this, the Dutch allowed the creation of education societies and funded its creation. Dutch educated Intelligentsias' would establish schools and education across the Dutch East Indies. Whilst the policy attempted to raise awareness among the natives of the need to break free from the shackles of the feudal system and develop along Western lines and were concerned about the native population's social and cultural conditions, it spearheaded the spread of Indonesian National Revivalism, allowing people to silently organize and articulate the their objections to colonial rule.[18] Budi Utomo was considered the first nationalist society in the Dutch East Indies.[19] Over time organizations turned into political parties, such how Budi Utomo turned into Parindra.[20][21]

The Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies began when the Japanese invaded the Dutch East Indies through Tarakan, Kalimantan, on 8 March 1942. By the Japanese Government, parties that were based on Indonesian nationalism and wanted to fight for Indonesian Independence were dissolved and banned from political activities on 20 March 1942.[22]

A poster encouraging citizens to support the 1997 Indonesian legislative election.

After his rise into power, President Suharto expressed his discontent regarding multiple political parties, arguing that the failure of Konstituante in 1955-1959 was caused by party deadlock - unacceptable his regime.[49] He proposed that existing political parties unite based on their ideological essence – either spiritual (religious) or materialist (secular nationalist) - in order to cripple the resulting umbrella parties with infighting. Political parties' reaction to Suharto's propositions was generally positive, with Islamic parties claiming that party fusion was in line with their last National Islamic Congress resolution agreed in 1969. A political alliance dubbed the "Democratic Development Group" was formed by the PNI, the IPKI, Parkindo, the Murba Party, and the Catholic Party to compete in 1971 election.[50]

After 1971 election, New Order regime reiterated its call for political parties to fuse, and a MPR ordinance regulating political parties grouping issued in 1973 further pressured political parties to merge.[51]

All Islamic political parties merged to form the United Development Party (PPP) on 5 January 1973, and the remaining nationalist and non-Islamic political parties united to form the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) on 10 January 1973.[51] Golkar, officially a "federation of public organisations" but effectively a political party, remained dominant for the entirety of the New Order. From 1985, all political parties were required to declare national ideology Pancasila as their "one and only ideological basis".

The parties participated for the last time in the 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 jumping substantially to 48 parties.

After the Reform, the PPP survived and continues to participate in all following elections after 1999, albeit with much of its membership having broken off from it and founded their own parties. Golkar too was made a proper party and exists to this day. The PDI failed to imitate the post-Suharto successes of the PPP and Golkar after the government intervened and unseated Chairman Megawati Soekarnoputri, causing PDI support to collapse in the 1997 election. PDI votes further eroded as support instead went to its breakaway Indonesian Democratic Party - Struggle (PDI-P), led by Megawati in the post-Suharto 1999 election, resulting in the party winning only two seats in contrast to the PDI-P's 153 seats. After poor electoral performance and failure to register for the 2004 election, PDI rebranded itself as the Indonesian Democratic Vanguard Party (PPDI) in 2003.[52]

Logo		Name		Established	Fate
		Party of the Functional Groups Partai Golongan Karya	Golkar	1964	Active
		Indonesian Democratic Party Partai Demokrasi Indonesia	PDI	1973[53]	Disbanded in 2003 succeeded by PPDI[52]
		United Development Party Partai Persatuan Pembangunan	PPP	1973[54]	Active

Prior to the end of the New Order era, there was a time where several political activists and student movements established small political parties in the early 1990s. Sensing the near fall of the New Order, the formation of these newly unregistered and unrecognized political parties was based on opposition to the New Order government and positioned themselves as the opposition and played a crucial part in the fall of the new order. The new parties then and only participated in the 1999 elections.

Whilst the New Masyumi Party predates the wave of the new opposition parties, the Indonesian Democratic Union Party (PUDI) was considered as the first genuine opposition party. As PUDI was upfront and outspoken in their political opposition as a party against the New Order regime, the first out of many.[55] At one point, fielding both presidential and vice-presidential candidates, PUDI was considered a challenger to Suharto's rule.[56][57] Emboldened by the success of PUDI, the Democratic People's Association (PRD) organisation declared itself the People's Democratic Party (also abbreviated as PRD). On 22 July 1996, the PRD was officially declared to the public and announced its political manifesto.[58]

Logo		Name		Established	Fate
		New Masyumi Party Partai Masyumi Baru		1995[59]	Non-active
		Indonesian Democratic Union Party Partai Uni Demokrasi Indonesia	PUDI	1996[60]	Non-active
		People's Democratic Party Partai Rakyat Demokratik	PRD	1996[61]	Disbanded in 2021 Merged with Just and Prosperous People's Party
		Indonesian National Christian Party Partai Kristen Nasional Indonesia	Krisna	1998[62]	Non-active
		Indonesian Workers' Party Partai Pekerja Indonesia	PPI	1998[63]	Non-active

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 existing prior to the New Order era, resulting in parties sharing similar political party names, with faction names as the only characteristics that made those parties distinct from each other. Example on this case was on claimants to the heritage of the former Indonesian National Party (PNI) and Masyumi Party.[64]

Most of the parties failed to gain even a single seat due to lack of votes. After the new electoral law authorised the use of a parliamentary threshold to determine the division of DPR seats, those parties were forced to reorganise themselves in order to be able to register for the next 2004 election.[65]

Below is the list of political parties participating only in the 1999 election which failed to participate in the next 2004 election.

After the 1999 legislative election, 150 parties were registered with the Ministry of Law and Human Rights. However, after a review by the newly formed General Election Commission, this number was reduced to 50, and then to 24.[93] This decrease from the 48 parties that ran in the 1999 legislative election was primarily due to a new election law that allowed only parties that had won 2% of DPR seats or 3% of seats in provincial and regental legislatures in half of the provinces to run in the 2004 election. Only six parties met this criterion, and the others were forced to merge or reorganize into a new party.[94]

In 2009, introduction of a parliamentary threshold also meant that only parties receiving more than 2.5% of the popular vote would be seated in the DPR.[95] This threshold was raised to 3.5% in 2014,[96] then finally to 4% in 2017 as a way to cut election costs and ensure stability.[97] As a result small parties have no chance of surpassing the parliamentary threshold.

Below is the list of political parties participating in the 2004 and 2009 elections which failed to participate in the next 2014 election.

Name[98][99][100][101]		Established	Dissolved	Contested elections
				2004	2009
Labour Party Partai Buruh	PB	1998 As "National Labour Party"[102]	2021 Reformed into Labour Party
Indonesian Democratic Party of Devotion Partai Kasih Demokrasi Indonesia	PKDI	1998	2011 Merged to form National Unity Party[103]
Patriot Party Partai Patriot		1998	2011 Merged to form National Unity Party[103]
Ulema National Awakening Party Partai Kebangkitan Nasional Ulama	PKNU	2000s	2022 Merged into People's Sovereignty Party (PKR)[104]
Archipelago Republic Party Partai Republika Nusantara	RepublikaN	2001	2013 Merged into Hanura[105]
Prosperous Peace Party Partai Damai Sejahtera	PDS	2001	2013 Merged into Hanura[105]
Pioneers' Party Partai Pelopor	PP	2002	2011 Merged to form National Unity Party[103]
Reform Star Party Partai Bintang Reformasi	PBR	2002	2011 Merged into Gerindra[106]
Regional Unity Party Partai Persatuan Daerah	PPD	2002	2011 Merged to form National Unity Party[103]
Concern for the Nation Functional Party Partai Karya Peduli Bangsa	PKPB	2002
Democratic Nationhood Party Partai Demokrasi Kebangsaan	PDK	2002	2011 Merged to form National Unity Party[103]
Freedom Party Partai Merdeka	PM	2002	2011 Merged to form National Unity Party[103]
Indonesian Unity Party Partai Sarikat Indonesia	PSI	2002	2005 Merged into PAN[107]
Indonesian Nahdlatul Community Party Partai Persatuan Nahdlatul Ummah Indonesia	PPNUI	2003
Indonesian Democratic Vanguard Party Partai Penegak Demokrasi Indonesia	PPDI	2003	2011 Merged to form National Unity Party[103]
Democratic Renewal Party Partai Demokrasi Pembaruan	PDP	2005	2011 Merged to form National Unity Party[103]
Sovereignty Party Partai Kedaulatan	PK	2006	2013 Merged into Hanura[105]
National People's Concern Party Partai Rakyat Peduli Nasional	PPRN	2006	2013 Merged into Hanura[105]
National Sun Party Partai Matahari Bangsa	PMB	2006	2014[108]
Functional Party of Struggle Partai Karya Perjuangan	Pakar Pangan	2007	2012 Merged into Democratic Party[109]
Indonesian Youth Party Partai Pemuda Indonesia	PPI	2007	2011 Merged to form National Unity Party[103]
National Front Party Partai Barisan Nasional	PBN	2007
Prosperous Indonesia Party Partai Indonesia Sejahtera	PIS	2007[110]	2011 Merged to form National Unity Party[103]
Peace and Safe Islamic Party Partai Islam Damai Aman	Idaman	2015	2018 Merged into PAN[111]	Not yet established