The legitimacy of local political parties in Aceh results from a peace agreement between the Free Aceh Movement and the Government of Indonesia. Local political parties provide new hope and alternative for people who previously only voted for national parties. Since participating in the election for the first time, local political parties have obtained the people's mandate to fill legislative and executive powers. But along the way, local political parties experienced a crisis of trust. Parliamentary seat gains declined dramatically over the three election periods. This is the starting point for studying local political parties in a limited scope in Banda Aceh City. Through a qualitative approach, the results of this study describe contextual conditions from the perspective of civil society or city residents. The study results explain the lack of seats for local political parties. Residents see that local political parties have not strengthened as a catalyst in influencing policy and have not appeared unique and specific to distinguish them from national political parties. In the future, the role of local political parties is expected to be more critical in fighting for local democracy substantially.