M

uhammad Nazar, one of a number of candidates running for the Aceh governorship, was surprised when he was informed that he had barely gathered 8 percent of total votes in the unofficial “quick counts” in Monday’s election.

The former deputy governor and popular student activist said he suspected foul play, although the Independent Election Committee (KIP) will only release the official results this week. The unofficial tallies were disclosed on the evening of the elections.

Nazar was nominated by the Democratic Party, the United Development Party (PPP) and local party SIRA, or Independent Voice of the Acehnese. They had earlier calculated that he could potentially raise about 30 percent support from over 3.2 million eligible voters because he had organized around 250,000 campaign team members from all political parties that supported him.

“I am not boasting, but logically, I would collect more votes from my parties’ constituents as well as their families. I don’t know why this has happened,” Nazar said.

Nazar previously headed the original SIRA — Information Center of the Acehnese — which in 1999 held a phenomenal rally in Banda Aceh, demanding a referendum. The rally followed the decision under the governance of former president B.J. Habibie to allow Timor Leste to hold their own popular vote to decide whether to separate from or remain within the Republic of Indonesia.

 Following the announcement of the election’s unofficial count, Nazar raised allegations that security authorities pretended they were ignorant of the possibility that his witnesses for voting day failed to show up, saying they were intimidated by rival parties.

Hundreds of his witnesses for Monday’s election had resigned from Nazar’s team, citing concerns about the safety of their families. Police have yet to thoroughly resolve the incidents of violence and mysterious killings that had occurred since October, which have been linked to tension ahead of the election.

In the hours after Monday’s voting, two separate quick counts were held by Citra Publik Indonesia (Indonesian Public Image, CPI) with the Indonesian Survey Circle (LSI) and by Lingkaran Survey Indonesia (Indonesian Survey Institute — also known as LSI).

The counts differed only slightly, but showed the same ranking: the pairing of Zaini Abdullah–Muzakir Manaf, with supporters based in the former Free Aceh Movement (GAM), was leading with around 55 percent. According to the CPI-LSI survey, they were followed by the Irwandi Yusuf–Muhyan Yunan team with 30.05 percent; Muhammad Nazar–Nova Iriansyah with 7.82 percent; while both surveys also showed that Darni Daud–Ahmad Fauzi was in fourth position with under 4.5 percent and T. Ahmad Tajudddin–Suriansyah finished last with under 4 percent.

The surveys were held in and around 300 polling stations, a small sample from a total of 17,000 polling stations throughout the province.

Similarly, Irwandi immediately reacted to the quick count, blaming intimidation of his supporters perpetrated by his rivals.

“I will accept any result of this election as long as it is fair. Unfortunately, I found many unfair efforts including intimidation from my competitors,” former Aceh governor Irwandi said.

He said that the rivals’ supporters came to residents houses and intimidated them into voting for candidate number 5 — meaning his fellow former GAM executives, Zaini Abdullah and running mate Muzakir Manaf. Witnesses for Irwandi’s camp were also threatened, according to Irwandi’s group. Irwandi has raised concerns about intimidation several times in the past.

Another candidate, Darni Daud, refused to comment on his predicted loss, saying he is still waiting for the final results from the election committee.

“Indeed, I also received threats, but we still review the entire process comprehensively,” said Darni, who registered as an independent candidate.

Both Nazar and Irwandi agreed that the 2012 election process was worse than the 2006 gubernatorial election; the first since the 2005 Helsinki Peace Agreement.

“People were under pressure and we failed to develop real democratization [in the current election],” Nazar said, adding that observers had also failed to supervise elections to guarantee that they would be fair. He said that he would wait for the final results before considering his next actions.

“I agree that we should do something if there were cases of violence during the election,” he said.

On the contrary, Irwandi has already declared his intentions to file complaints with the Constitutional Court (MK) once he has gathered the necessary evidence.

“We will ask the MK to revoke the election results in Aceh because the process was not fair. We will ask for a new election to be held in Aceh,” Irwandi said.

Ifdhal Kasim, the chairman of the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) shed light upon several cases of intimidation that allegedly occurred during campaigns and ahead of voting day on April 9.

“Overall, the election in Aceh was smooth and peaceful, but the fact is incidents of intimidation did occur during campaigns and several days before Election Day,” Ifdhal said.

It may turn out to be a difficult job, however, to find evidence to support allegations that people were intimidated into voting for certain candidates or face the threat of bloodshed all over again.

“People will be afraid to come forward as witnesses claiming that they were intimidated. Many Acehnese are still in trauma,” Ifdhal said.