Former separatists Irwandi Yusuf & Muhammad Nazar of GAM have won Aceh’s gubernatorial election.

Irwandi Yusuf and running mate Muhammad Nazar continue to lead in the preliminary vote count for the gubernatorial election of Aceh province in northern Sumatra, representing the former armed separastist group, Free Aceh Movement, GAM.

The vote count by the Aceh Independent Elections Committee (KIP) has the GAM spokesman Irwandi and his running mate still in the lead in the governor’s race, with 351.701 votes, or 31%, out of a total of 1,126,555 votes counted. These two have won the areas of Aceh Besar, Aceh Selatan, Aceh Barat, Aceh Utara (60% metrotv), Gayo Lues, Nagan Raya, Aceh Barat Daya, Bireuen, and Simeulue.

In second place come Humam Hamid and Hasbi Abdullah, from the Partai Persatuan Pembangunan (PPP), with 18.7%, or 210,662 votes, winning in the city of Banda Aceh and the districts of Pidie and Aceh Tenggara.

In third are Malik Raden and Sayed Fuad Zakaria who are supported by a coalition of parties including Golkar, Partai Demokrat, PDI-P and PKPI, with 182,681 votes or 16%. They won the most votes in four districts, Bener Meriah, Aceh Tengah, Aceh Tamiang, and Aceh Singkil.

Bringing up the rear are Azwar Abubakar and Nasir Jamil from PAN and PKS with 140,792 votes (12,5%), Iskandar Husein and M Saleh Manaf with 79,743 votes (7%), Ghazali Abbas Adan and Salahuddin Al Fata with 71,172 votes (6,3%), Tamlicha Ali and Harmen Nuriqmar with 50,152 votes (4,5%), and hopelessly unpopular are Djali Yusuf and RA Syaukas Rahmatillah with 39,652 votes (3,5%).

The KIP has yet to receive ballot boxes from Sabang, Aceh Jaya, Bireuen, East Aceh and Langsa. GAM candidates are expected to do well in these areas. antara

Meanwhile the European Union Election Observation Mission for Aceh reported cases of intimidation of voters at 1.2% of 232 polling stations in Central Aceh, Pidie and Aceh Besar. The Asian Network For Free Elections (Anfrel) also announced similar cases in Aceh Tamiang, as well as technical violations during the voting and money politics during campaigning.

Anfrel mission head Damaso Magbual:

Eligible voters were asked by unidentified people to hand over their voter cards for unspecified reasons. However, they don’t want their cases reported to the official election supervisory agency for further investigation.

He said 11 Anfrel monitors deployed in 20 districts also found dozens of ballots in ballot boxes before voting began. He also said many ballots were declared invalid because people did not understand how to vote, while some polling station staff did not ensure ballots were correctly inserted in ballot boxes.

EU Election Observation Mission chairman Glyn Ford said the supervisory agency had received a total of 158 complaints, with 109 of them having been identified as administrative problems and 19 as election violations.