Aceh KIP criticized for delays in vote counting

Hotli Simanjuntak ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Banda Aceh   |  Sat, 04/25/2009 1:33 PM  |  National

The provincial Election Supervisory Committee (Panwaslu) has berated the Independent Election Commission (KIP) for missing the deadline for vote counting at a regency and municipality level in the country's easternmost province.

Nyak Arif Fadilah, the chairwoman of Panwaslu, said in Banda Aceh on Friday that due to very poor management, 14 regencies and municipalities had failed to present the results of their district vote count to the KIP on time.

"Their management was very bad. That was indicated by the fact that many stages of the election procedure were not followed as expected. We are very disappointed at this slow uptake of votes as it will disturb the vote count at the national level," said Nyak Arif.

At this point, she claimed, only 11 regencies, including Banda Aceh, Aceh Besar and Sabang, had sent the results of their vote count to the KIP.

Meanwhile, the KIP will be forced to delay its plenary session due to allegations of voting mark-ups in favor of a particular parties legislative candidate.

A report on this alleged voting violation was forwarded to the KIP, who then stated that it was impossible to take it to a plenary session as the April 21 deadline had passed.

Based on vote counts from Sabang, Banda Aceh, Aceh Besar and Pidie Jaya, with a total of 285,844 approved votes, the KIP published the latest election results as follows: The Democratic Party ranked first with almost 126,000 votes, Partai Keadilan Sejahtera (PKS) came in second with 34,100, the Golkar Party ranked third with nearly 21,000 and Partai Amanat Nasional (PAN) came in fourth with around 19,000 votes.

Based on independent results from the Aceh provincial legislature, it was estimated the Aceh Party (PA) would win a major victory with around 43 percent of the total votes, with the Democratic Party gaining just 14.3 percent.

The figures were based on results from Sample Based Observation (SBO), which was conducted by e-Card with technical assistance from the National Democratic Institute.

The win of the PA that was founded former separatist rebels in Aceh had been predicted much earlier.

During the campaign period, the party's red flags and other symbols were highly visible across the province, even in remote villages. The party was the only contestant that staged campaign rallies in all of Aceh's regencies.

The PA's win in Aceh had been forecast much earlier.

During the campaign period, the party's red flags and other symbols were highly visible across the province, even in remote villages. The party was the only contestant that staged campaign rallies in all of Aceh's regencies.

Humam Hamid, a sociologist from the Syiah Kuala University in Banda Aceh, has said the PA's victory had nothing to do with primordialism.

The PA's victory, he said, was the logical consequence of GAM's three-decade fight against oppressions in Aceh, and added that it was backed by loyal and well-organized supporters.

Acehnese political observer Saifudin Bantasyam warned of high political tensions between the PA and the central government if the latter breaks its promise to implement all points in the Helsinki peace agreement, which gives full authority to the Aceh administration to manage its natural resources.

Aceh is the only province allowed under election law to have local parties contest for legislative seats in the province.

There are five other local parties in Aceh aside from the PA - the People's Aceh Party (PRA), the Acehnese People's Independent Aspiration Party (SIRA), the United Aceh Party, the Aceh Sovereignty Party (PDA) and the Safe and Prosperous Aceh Party (PAAS).

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