Editing United Development Party (section)

=== Origins ===
Ten political parties participated in the [[1971 Indonesian legislative election|1971 legislative election]], a number that President [[Suharto]] considered to be too many. Suharto wished that political parties be reduced to just two or three and that the parties should be grouped based on their programs.

The basis for the merger that would result in the birth of the PPP was a coalition of the four Islamic Parties in the [[People's Representative Council]] (DPR) called the United Development Faction. This faction consisted of [[Nahdatul Ulama]] (NU), the [[Parmusi|Muslim Party of Indonesia]] (Parmusi), the [[Islamic Association Party of Indonesia]] (PSII) and the [[Islamic Education Movement]] (Perti).

With encouragement by the Government, officials from all four parties had meetings with each other and after finding some common ground, merged the four Islamic parties in Indonesia into the United Development Party on 5 January 1973. Despite this formal merging of the parties however, internal PPP politics under the Suharto government were dominated by the differing priorities of the original groups that formed the party.