The candidates for the leaders of Aceh province in Indonesia
began a two-week-long official campaign on Friday to compete over
the positions of governor and mayors, the provincial electoral
commission said.
"The campaign starts today, from Nov. 24 to Dec. 7," M. Jafar,
chairman of the commission, told Xinhua in a telephone
interview.
"The campaign is initiated with the presentation of the vision
and mission of the candidates and on Nov. 25 there will be debates
among them," he added.
The Dec. 11 poll will elect a governor, 15 regents and four
mayors across the province in the tip of Indonesia's Sumatra
island, some 1,600 km northwest of Jakarta, Jafar said.
The campaign period will see eight candidates running for the
province's top job. Around 2.6 million Acehnese are eligible to
vote in the elections.
Military men and member of the Separatist Free Aceh Movement
known as "GAM" are among those compete for posts leading the
oil-and-gas rich province, which is recovering from the 2004
tsunami, said Jafar.
Djali Yusuf, a former general who led Indonesian troops in the
province and Irwandi Yusuf, a GAM's representative in the Aceh
Monitoring Mission (AMM) that currently monitors peace in Aceh and
another GAM member Hasbi Abdullah, are among the eight independent
candidates in the race for governor, said the chairman.
The other five candidates are nominated by national parties.
Similarly, dozens of candidates for other positions are also
from military and rebel, said Jafar.
The Independent Elections Committee requested contesting
candidates to conduct their campaign peacefully.
"The candidates should be able to control their campaign team
and supporters to maintain peace," said Zainuddin, the committee's
working group member on communication.
The Indonesian parliament endorsed a land mark law for Aceh
province in July, paving the way for the provincial election and
giving the province greater autonomy and control over much of its
oil and natural gas, which is in line with the peace accord between
the government and the rebel on Aug. 15 in Helsinki, Finland.
The accord was to halt the three-decade bloody conflict that had
claimed over 15,000 of lives, most of them civilians
The peace accord was spurred by the tsunami that has claimed
over 150,000 lives and devastated most of coastal areas of the
province.
More than 100 foreign observers have already monitored and
registered to involve in supervising the implementation of the
peace deal. Even dozens of foreign observers from European Union
has worked since the beginning of this month," Jafar said.
Japan, Canada and the United States also sent their observers to
Aceh's regional election, Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan
Wirajuda said.
Indonesia hailed the presence of foreign observers to monitor
the first-direct poll, saying that their presence was important to
jointly ensure that the election is conducted democratically and
transparently, said Wirajuda.
(Xinhua News Agency November 24, 2006)
