Indonesia to kick off landmark poll campaign in Aceh
Source: Reuters
BANDA ACEH, Indonesia, Nov 22 (Reuters) - Political campaigning kicks off across Indonesia's once rebellious Aceh province this week for landmark Dec. 11 elections, the local poll commission said on Wednesday. The poll, the first ever direct vote for top executive posts in the province, is a key step towards ending a conflict that killed 15,000 people since the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) launched a struggle for an independent state on Sumatra island's northern tip in 1976. "The campaign will start on Nov. 24 for 14 days. On the first day, the candidates will deliver their vision and mission to a special meeting of the regional legislature," said Faizah S.P., head of campaigns at Aceh's election commission. Campaigning will end on Dec. 7 and the province will go into a quiet period, typical of Indonesian elections, for three days before voting day. The election will choose the provincial governor and his deputy, as well as 19 regents and mayors across Aceh. GAM and the Indonesian government signed a truce in August 2005 under Finnish mediation. The agreement paved the way for the former separatists' involvement in local Aceh politics after they agreed to end their armed rebellion. Previous polls in Aceh, including the 2004 Indonesian presidential and legislative elections, were conducted under tight security and open campaigning was forbidden in many areas due to the insurgency. Eight candidates running for governor will hold televised debates on Nov. 25, the first of their kind in Aceh. One debate will pit four candidates against one other. A retired general who once led Indonesian troops in Aceh and a former separatist are among the gubernatorial nominees who last week pledged to ensure there would be no election violence. International and local observers say the possibility of violence is low during the campaign, but the election commission has called on monitoring groups to send more people as it wants around 10,000 monitors spread across the rugged province of four million people. The Helsinki agreement came about after months of negotiations, partially spurred by the Dec. 26, 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami that left around 170,000 Acehnese dead or missing.
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