A

return to the polls in at least five of the 17 regencies and municipalities across Aceh is being demanded to address claims of “cheating” in the April 9 election.

The five regions are Banda Aceh, Lhok Seumawe, Southeast Aceh, Central Aceh and West Aceh.

In Banda Aceh, a group of people staged a rally in front of the Independent Election Commission (KIP) building on Monday, demanding new mayoral elections and claiming to have uncovered widespread cheating committed during this month’s election.

“The election, as we saw it, was full of basic mistakes that caused many voters to be unable to give votes,” protester Mustafa Ali said.

Mustafa claimed that only 50 percent of voters were allowed to vote, while the rest could not because their names were not on the list of eligible voters.

He claimed that they were not on the list as they simply were not registered by authorities, not because they refused to vote.

At the same time, he added, many of those on the list were already dead.

“In other cases, voters received two invitations to cast votes,” he said.

Other anomalies, according to Mustafa, included mayoral candidates casting votes on behalf of others by saying the voters were too sick to do so themselves.

In another case, subdistrict administration officers were found with the team of one candidate.

“Weak control during the silent week have led some candidates to commit silent campaign through social events such as distributing jilbab [headscarves] to the people,” he said.

The perceived weaknesses of the election body in Banda Aceh when conducting the election were considered violations, which were committed structurally, systematically and massively, that later led to
disappointment over the result of the mayoral election.

“This accounts for why we firmly say ‘no’ to the result of the Banda Aceh election and urge that another election is conducted because the election was not conducted democratically,” Mustafa said.

Separately, the KIP in Banda Aceh called for those unsatisfied by the result of the election to prepare strong evidence on any alleged violation committed during the election.

“We are ready to have another election at anytime whenever there is a court ruling saying that the election process that we have conducted, according to the prevailing regulations, was illegitimate,” Banda Aceh KIP chairman Aidil Azhari said.

Aidil said that the KIP was subject to the law on regional elections as the institution that conducted the election in Banda Aceh.

He added that another election would not be possible unless there was a court order saying that the election in a particular region was illegitimate.

“If you bring us that sentence tomorrow, we will have the new election right after, at the same day,” Aidil said in response to the protesters’ demands.

Mawardi Nurdi, alongside running mate Iliza Saadudin, has been declared the winner of the election in Banda Aceh, receiving 37,598 or 43 percent of the total votes.

In Southeast Aceh, a similar protest demanding another election led to the local KIP office being set alight by supporters of regency candidate Irawan and his running mate Yudi Candra, as well as supporters of the Karim Cukup and Nurhayati Sahali pair of candidates.

In Central Aceh, the local legislative council has also issued a recommendation for another election in its bid of appeasing those who were considered to have been disadvantaged by alleged cheating.