Monitoring Agencies Praise Aceh Election
Wednesday, 13 December, 2006 | 15:37 WIB

TEMPO Interactive, Banda Aceh: Several monitoring agencies, both foreign and local, have praised the process of the regional leaders election in Aceh that took place on Monday (11/12).

“The voting procedures worked well, the process was also transparent,” said Glyn Ford, Head of the European Union Monitoring Team, during a press conference at the Swiss Bel Hotel, Banda Aceh, yesterday (12/12).

According to Ford, the voters showed commitment to a consolidation of peace and democracy.

Members of the general public could freely express their choice for governor and regents throughout Aceh.

Moreover, said Ford, this election was better than the national general election two years ago.

The opinion was summarized from the reports of 88 officials of the European Union monitoring agency distributed to 21 regencies in Aceh before and during the election.

On the voting day, European Union monitoring officials visited 310 places of voting posts throughout Aceh.

Nonetheless, European Union monitoring officials also listed several weaknesses.

For example, a number of disabled persons could not vote because they were not registered as voters.

“In the future, this shouldn't happen anymore. They also have the right to vote,” said Ford.

The same evaluation was mentioned by Ardiansyah, from the non-governmental organization Juldil.

According to him, in general the regional leaders election went well, was safe and peaceful.

Jurdil made this conclusion after monitoring the voting process at 400 voting posts throughout Aceh.

The level of public participation, said Ardiansyah, was also quite high, around 85 percent.

Jurdil also found incidences of intimidation of voters in several voting posts in Bireun, Southwest Aceh and North Aceh.

However, Jurdil did not mention the names of the people who were involved.

A similar same statement was made by Ryaas Rasyid, a member of governor candidate Maleek Radeen's success team.

He saw intimidations carried out by independent candidates.

“This is dangerous!” he said.

According to Ryaas, some people claiming to be from the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) came to residents' houses at night and forced them to vote for their candidate on Sweden's order.

“In addition, there is proof that residents' identity cards were used several times for the requirement of proposing different independent candidates,” said Ryaas.

A monitoring agency with 40 members from the United States Embassy disputed the intimidations.

“The election situation and voting process were free from all kinds of intimidation and manipulation,” was stated in a press statement from the United States Embassy.

However, like other monitoring agencies, this agency also noted several unregistered voters.

ADI WARSIDI, CHOIRUL AMINUDDIN