PSI Targets Top-Three Finish, Urging Cadres to Reach Beyond Party Events

Community outreach and a message to young voters

At PSI's regional coordination meeting at the Sentul International Convention Center in Bogor, West Java, Ali said the public response to the party gave him confidence that its electoral goal was achievable. He called on cadres to engage their neighbors consistently, persevere through setbacks and reject hate politics.

Ali also urged politically disengaged young people to vote and help improve national politics. He attributed much of their reluctance to the dishonesty they encounter in politics and said he hoped those who had stayed away would join PSI to work toward a better Indonesia.

"When good people remain silent, they provide opportunities for bad people to dominate the political landscape in Indonesia," he said.

A national ambition after two parliamentary setbacks

A top-three finish would mark a change for PSI, which has never secured seats in Indonesia's national parliament, the DPR RI. The party contested the 2019 and 2024 elections but fell short of the 4 percent parliamentary threshold both times. In an interview with Tempo, Ali described those defeats as lessons for its preparations for the 2029 election.

A Saiful Mujani Research and Consulting (SMRC) survey reported in August 2026 put PSI's electoral support at 4.1 percent. According to Republika Online, Ali considered that figure too small for the party's ambitions and said its work could not stop at survey results.

Ali also acknowledged that the party still had preliminary work to do. In a September interview with Total Politik, he said PSI's first phase was to ensure it qualified to participate in an election for the third time. Discussion of presidential candidates was premature, he said, because PSI had yet to gain parliamentary representation.

The threshold for future parliamentary elections remains for lawmakers to determine. Indonesia's Constitutional Court found that the 4 percent requirement was not fully consistent with popular sovereignty, electoral fairness and legal certainty. It upheld the threshold for the 2024 DPR election but ruled it conditionally constitutional for 2029 and subsequent elections.

Building an organization to channel support

Ali has tied PSI's outreach effort to strengthening its organization, including its ability to turn support for former President Joko Widodo into support for the party. Widodo, widely known as Jokowi, has joined PSI and holds a party membership card. Ali described his membership as an opportunity to energize cadres' community work.

But Jokowi's popularity is not enough on its own, Ali said. Although the former president is one of PSI's key figures, the party needs a well-organized structure to channel that support. Ali also said Jokowi had entrusted him with conveying the importance of building the organization.

PSI is reviewing its structure against internal targets of 10 members per village, 15 per subdistrict, 25 per district and 45 per province, according to Ali.

A regional seat target and November preparations

Ali has also set a specific regional objective for 2029: one DPR RI seat from the Kepulauan Riau electoral district. He announced that target at an October 22 consolidation meeting with PSI's regional and district boards in Batam, IDN Times reported.

The party is preparing for a national leadership meeting, known as Rapimnas, and its anniversary celebration in Surabaya on November 16, 2026. Ali identified those preparations as one of three main agenda items, alongside completing PSI's organizational structure down to the village branch, or DPRT, level.