BANDA ACEH: Indonesia's only province ruled by Islamic sharia laws elects its powerful governor on Monday in polls that will test a fragile peace following a 30-year separatist war.
The elections in Aceh are the second since the province suffered 170,000 fatalities in the Asian tsunami of 2004, and since the war against Indonesian rule ended in 2005, having claimed 15,000 lives.
At the village of Ulee Lheue on the outskirts of the capital Banda Aceh, poll workers prepared to receive voters at the Baiturrahim Mosque, the only structure in the fishing community that survived the tsunami.
"Assalamualaikum (peace be upon you), all residents of Ulee Lheue. Those who are eligible, please come now to vote," fisherman Busriadi, 38, announced from the mosque speaker, signalling the start of voting a little after 8:00 am (0100 GMT).
Only 415 people out of a community of 6,000 villagers survived the tsunami, which flattened a village whose population has grown to around 800.
On the coastal road from the capital some of the remains of the devastation are still visible: mounds of rubble, the hollow skeleton of a house near lapping waves, and a mass grave.
Voters are electing the governor -- the top post in the province -- as well as 17 district heads and deputies.
Aceh, on the western edge of the scattered Indonesian archipelago, enjoys broad autonomy and is an anomaly in a country where most of the 240 million people practise a moderate form of Islam.
Alcohol is freely sold in the rest of Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim-majority nation, but it is banned in Aceh. In some of the province's regions, women are forbidden from wearing tight trousers.
Gamblers and imbibers are publicly caned. Debate still churns in Aceh over whether adulterers should continue to be publicly flogged, or stoned to death.
Irwandi Yusuf, 51, who was elected governor in December 2006 and is seeking a second five-year term, backs sharia but has opposed stricter enforcement, such as the harshest punishment for adultery.
Among his four challengers are Teungku Ahmad Tajuddin, a 49-year-old Islamic schoolteacher who wants stricter sharia laws but is not considered a serious contender, and 71-year-old Zaini Abdullah, who is backed by the powerful Aceh Party and is a former freedom fighter like Yusuf himself.
"The election is clearly a competition between Irwandi... and the Aceh Party," said Jakarta-based analyst Jan Lepeltak.
Many Acehnese worry that the elections, which have been preceded by outbreaks of violence, could test a fragile peace that has prevailed since the decades-long insurgency ended.
Much of the election tension has centred around Yusuf, who like many other politicians had been a rebel with the now-defunct separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM), and his feud with the Aceh Party which was created by GAM in 2008.
Divisions among the former GAM leaders have grown ever since the 2005 agreement with Indonesia that ended the war, with Yusuf saying he had survived an assassination attempt last month.
The Aceh Party, which dominates the regional parliament, has been bitterly opposed to Yusuf for running as an independent.
Aceh elections supervisory committee chairman Nyak Arief Fadhillah Syah said 57 cases of violence and intimidation had been reported in the run-up to the poll, many involving supporters of Yusuf and Abdullah, the Aceh Party candidate.
"The potential for corruption is enormous, because of the possibility of terror and intimidation to ensure victory for a particular candidate," he said.
Lepeltak said he believed the election "is a test for the maturity of the political process in Aceh".
More than three million residents are eligible to vote at 9,786 polling stations that will remain open until 2:00 pm. Results are expected by April 15, and candidates must garner more than 30 percent of the vote for an outright win.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.