Nani Afrida and Ati Nurbaiti, Banda Aceh – Former Free Aceh Movement (GAM) spokesman Irwandi Yusuf is leading with over 39 percent in unofficial results from the landmark gubernatorial election in Aceh.

The result of a "quick count" by the Indonesian Survey Circle (LSI) shows Irwandi, 46, who is running with Muhammad Nazar, 34, head of the Aceh Referendum Information Center (SIRA), ahead of Humam Hamid and Hasbi Abdullah, known as H2O, who had 16.2 percent of the vote.

Both pairs are known to be supported by GAM, but both ran as independent candidates.

The LSI result was seconded by a quick count from the NGO Jurdil Aceh, which showed Irwandi winning with 38.6 percent, while Humam Hamid got 17 percent.

A jubilant Irwandi hugged Nur Djuli, a fomer GAM activist, in the lobby of the Swissbel Hotel in Banda Aceh, where another quick count was to be held. He took a GAM pin from Nur Djuli's jacket and put it on his own.

While Irwandi acknowledged the results were not definitive, he said the early tallies showed that "the people want GAM to lead Aceh."

Sidney Jones, the head of the Indonesian office of the International Crisis Group (ICG), said the loss of Humam, who was backed by GAM leaders in Sweden, showed that the group's leadership there had lost its influence.

The LSI count placed Malik Raden and Sayed Fuadi Zakaria at third with 13.9 percent. It put acting governor Azwar Abubakar and running mate Nasir Djamil at fourth with 11.1 percent.

The LSI estimated voter turnout at 78 percent. Its "quick count" was based on samples of votes collected from 331 voting booths. "With this result, we believe that we will not need a second round as Irwandi wins by a large margin," Denny J.A. from LSI said.

Observers had predicted a second round of elections would be needed, believing no candidate would likely collect the required 25 percent plus one vote needed to win.

A total of eight pairs of gubernatorial candidates ran in the election, in which voters also chose regents and mayors across Aceh.

Early reports and the observations of monitors suggested the elections had proceeded peacefully, except for a few cases of intimidation and one small explosives blast in North Aceh, 30 kilometers away from the regency capital of Lhokseumawe. Reports said there was no one hurt in the explosion.

Fourteen months after the signing of last year's peace agreement, Aceh thus saw a relatively calm polling day Monday. Voters chose from a total of 260 candidates running for mayor, regent, and governor, including candidates for deputies.

It was a historic, first direct election for local heads of government (citizens directly voted for president and national and local lawmakers in 1999). Polling stations got off to a slow start, with election officials giving last minute instructions to voters and turning away many disappointed would-be voters who were unregistered.

Many blamed the Independent Election Committee (KIP) for the non-registrations, but some observers also said residents had neglected to check their names on the lists posted in public places last month.

Misleading information at the last minute was also to blame. Four blind men who came to one of the polling stations said they wanted to vote there because they heard that the station was specifically catering to the disabled. But they were unable to vote as they were not registered.

Leaders of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) said they found out Sunday that only an estimated 10 percent of their 100,000 members were registered. Gubernatorial candidate Irwandi Yusuf said that, pending investigations, they considered the poor registration rate to be the result of neglect.

The chief observer from the European Union's Election Observation Mission, Glyn Ford, said Monday "there was no evidence" that the failure to register prospective voters was politically motivated to limit the votes of any group. He said the information he had received so far indicated that "the vast majority" were registered and that those who were unregistered were "random."

"We do not yet know the scale" of the problem, Ford said, adding that he hoped the problem would be addressed in the case of a second round.

Ford said he had observed the polls by helicopter in various areas including Sigli in Aceh Besar, Takengon in Central Aceh, and Lhokseumawe in North Aceh, and so far there had not been any significant problems.

In Banda Aceh, voters trickled in, some women saying they had had to finish cooking first. After voting, some residents gathered at coffee shops to wait for the counting.

Hordes of journalists followed candidate Irwandi, a former GAM representative on the Aceh Monitoring Mission, whose campaign drew huge crowds.

Jones said any fear of violence by disappointed candidates and their supporters was likely similar to any other area in the country. "What has not happened," she said, is "violence between GAM and non-GAM." She added that so far the elections had been "extraordinarily peaceful."