Page 250 - BUKU A CENTURY OF PARLIAMENTARY LIFE IN INDONESIA

THE DYNAMICS AND ROLES OF DPR-RI IN IMPROVING THE LIFE OF THE NATION
IN THE REFORMATION ERA (1998-2018)

election participants, namely Golkar (Functional Groups), the Indonesian
Democratic Party (PDI), and the United Development Party (PPP).

The KPU accommodated the political excitement and enthusiasm during
this reformation period by issuing KPU Decree No. 63/1999 on the Num-
ber of Polling Places and the Estimated Number of Voters in the 1999
General Election, which was ratified on 4 May 1999.

In total, there were 250,000 polling stations that
would serve as a medium for approximately 130
million Indonesians who wished to express their “In a short period
political aspirations in the celebration of demo-
cracy during the reformation period. Inevitably, of time, there
these populist regulations made the public’s en- came up hundreds
thusiasm so high. This could also be seen clearly
in the socio-political euphoria that was so over- (approximately 141) of
whelming. In a short period of time, there came political parties that
up hundreds (approximately 141) of political par-
ties that wanted to be contestants of the election. wanted to be contestants
It was a free election after Indonesia’s first general of the election. It was
election in 1955.
a free election after

However, the progress of these political parties Indonesia’s first general
ended badly. They lost when dealing with sev-
eral things, such as political infrastructure and election in 1955.”
connections that had long been established and
entrenched. This could be seen in the party con-
testants that existed during the previous Govern-
ment, namely during the New Order, such as Gol-
kar, PPP, and PDI--which later split into the Indonesian Democratic Party
of Struggle (PDIP)--which still got a lot of, or even the most, votes.

New political parties without the support of major religious organizations
in Indonesia, as could be seen in the National Awakening Party (PKB),
the National Mandate Party (PAN), the Crescent Star Party (PBB), and
one or two other parties, would take a long time to build their structure
and connectivity with the public. Predictably, these political parties then
fell one by one, and soon shrunk to only a total of 48 parties after going
through KPU verification.

The first general election in the reformation era was held on 7 June 1999,
and in the end resulted in 21 political parties that managed to fill the

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