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Indonesia Seeks Another Delay of Aceh Elections
Ezra Sihite | January 14, 2012

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Kesiangan
9:41pm Jan 14, 2012

"The government wants judges to issue a ruling that would postpone elections in Aceh slated for next month, the Home Affairs Ministry has said."

Go to Bogor to check the impact of judges' decisions.


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The government wants judges to issue a ruling that would postpone elections in Aceh slated for next month, the Home Affairs Ministry has said.

The ministry asked the Constitutional Court on Friday to postpone the polls so it could challenge a decision by the Aceh Independent Elections Commission (KIP) to ban the Aceh Party from fielding candidates. The party was founded by former members of the Free Aceh Movement, which sought independence for the province in a war that ended in 2005.

Voters in Aceh are due to go to the polls on Feb. 16, but any court ruling could take months to formulate and implement.

Since October, Aceh has seen a spate of unsolved shootings. Six people have died in the past month alone.

Aceh Governor Irwandi Yusuf and Home Affairs Minister Gamawan Fauzi deny the killings are politically motivated, but the latter has said that “we need to postpone elections in Aceh to allow all sides to participate and maintain the peace or prevent future disruptions to the newly appointed administrations.”

The gubernatorial and local elections were originally due to happen in October last year, but political squabbles have seen them postponed several times.

The latest postponement was made to allow two independent candidates, gubernatorial candidate T. A. Khalid and would-be Pidie district chief Fadhlullah, to register.

The Aceh Party has largely boycotted the election process, arguing that the polls should be better regulated.

Kamarudin, a lawyer for Zaini Abdullah, the Aceh Party’s would-be gubernatorial candidate, said the KIP was violating his client’s constitutional rights.

“The KIP is disregarding the legitimacy of Aceh’s elections,” he said on Friday. “Some candidates, both from national and local parties as well as independents, have not registered because the elections don’t have a proper legal umbrella. The KIP must postpone the elections until the Constitutional Court issues a ruling.”

House of Representatives deputy speaker Priyo Budi Santoso said the House supported the ministry’s call to postpone the elections.

Additional reporting from Antara