Banda Aceh – Thousands of people flocked to final election rallies on the last day of campaigning for landmark polls in the Indonesian province of Aceh.
In Banda Aceh's main Blangpadang Square, thousands turned out to hear candidates running in Monday's election for provincial governor and vice governor expound their vision. They were entertained by performances by artists from Aceh and Jakarta.
Similarly well-attended campaign rallies were also reported in several other locations in the capital and the main district towns, residents said.
The last four days of campaigning appear to have drawn far larger crowds than were seen when the campaign kicked off on November 24. An estimated 10,000 people attended the Blangpadang rally on Thursday, about five times the number who turned up on the first day, a local journalist said.
The head of the national People's Consultative Assembly, Hidayat Nurwahid, was present on the stage in Blangpadang, where candidates Azwar Abubakar and Nasir Jamil were campaigning.
Jamil, standing for the vice-governor post, is running on a ticket for the popular Prosperous Justice Party, which Nurwahid once chaired.
Nurwahid, speaking to journalists, said he was there only to observe the last day of campaigning, not to back candidates.
"I hope that the elections to pick the governor, vice governor and the heads of districts and their deputies will be successful, safe and peaceful, so that this political festival can really yield something of good quality," Nurwahid told the state Antara news agency.
He also hoped the elections could become a model for democracy for other regions of Indonesia. "I hope the implementation of the Aceh elections can become a model for other regions because it has proceeded in an honest, democratic, fair and peaceful manner," Nurwahid said.
Aceh's independent electoral commission campaign (KIP) deputy chief, T. Zainuddin, told a press conference marking the end of the campaign period that there had been no serious incidents reported during the 14-day campaign. Reported incidents had been trivial and had not disrupted the electoral process, he said.
"All cases that happened during (the) campaign were all able to be settled by KIP and the supervision committee at the district level," Zainuddin said.
The head of the network and communication division of the Aceh electoral supervision committee, Buchari, told the same press conference that a total of 158 violations had been registered during the entire electoral process so far, including during the two weeks of campaigning. The bulk of these, 109, were of an administrative nature, while criminal cases numbered 14 and 23 other cases were not investigated further for lack of evidence.
The criminal violations, he said, consisted of arson on campaign materials such as billboards and posters and physical attacks on KIP members.
A peace agreement last year between the Free Aceh Movement rebels and the Indonesian government paved the way for the direct elections to pick the heads of the province and its 21 districts.
The accord was spurred on by the devastating 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, which lashed Aceh's coastlines, killing about 168,000 people and forcing both sides to reassess their priorities at the negotiating table.