[9] Ten political parties participated in the 1971 legislative election, a number that President Suharto considered to be too many.

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.

With this some people became worried that to vote for the PPP and its Islamic leaning would mean expressing support the Jihad Commando and in a government growing increasingly authoritarian, many simply refused to be associated with the wrong side.

At the 1978 MPR General Session, PPP member Chalid Mawardi launched a scathing criticism of Suharto's regime.

[10] PPP members also conducted a mass walkout when Suharto referred to religions as "streams of beliefs".

[11] The symbol was identical to the first principle of Pancasila, Ketuhanan yang Maha Esa (Belief in the One Supreme God).

At the 1988 MPR General Session, Jailani Naro, the PPP Chairman, was nominated as vice president.

In May 1998, after Suharto's fall, the PPP returned to its Islamic ideology and prepared itself for the 1999 legislative election, where it won 11% of the vote.

The PPP's main problem with Wahid was his visit to Israel and the suggestion that he was willing to establish diplomatic relations with that nation.

[citation needed] The party came sixth in the 2009 legislative election with 5.3 percent of the vote, winning 38 seats in the People's Representative Council.

[13] Throughout the election, the party obtained votes from the elderly Muslim men throughout rural and urban area, inside and outside of Java.

[15] Five years later, in the 2019 Indonesian legislative election, the PPP share of the vote fell to 4.52%, and the number of seats it held in the legislature halved to 19.

[8] Today it is considered a centre-right[18] to right-wing[19][20] nationalist Islamist party which conforms with Pancasila doctrine and no longer upholds sharia as a main goal.

[5][4][verification needed] The party's vision is to bring about a nation that is just, prosperous, moral and democratic and that upholds the law, respects human rights and that holds in high esteem the dignity of mankind and social justice based on the values of Islam.

The party believes that religion (Islam) has an important role to play as a moral guidance and inspiration in the life of the nation.