Ten political parties participated in the 1971 legislative elections, a number that President Suharto considered to be too much.

[3] The basis for the merger that would result in the birth of PDI was a coalition of the five Nationalist and non-Islamic Parties in the People's Representative Council (DPR) called the Democracy Development Faction.

The PNI, the largest of the PDI's five parties, and the legatee of Sukarno, had its base in East and Central Java.

Even more heterogeneous than the United Development Party (PPP), the PDI, with no common ideological link other than the commitment to the Pancasila as its sole principle, was faction-ridden and riven with personality disputes.

To counter this, the Government decided to actively intervene into PDI's affairs and make it into a 3rd party to prevent the polarization that it feared.

Efforts were also made to encourage PDI, such as refurbishing the tomb of the late President Sukarno in 1978 and officially recognizing him as the "Hero of Independence Proclamation".

[4] This recognition of Sukarno was a change from the earlier New Order policy of playing down his achievements or ignoring him altogether.

In October 1998, after Suharto's fall, Megawati declared the formation of Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) to differentiate her faction of PDI from the government-backed one.