Voters in Aceh province crowded into polling stations yesterday to take part in elections aimed at cementing a peace deal that ended 29 years of war in the region worst hit by the 2004 tsunami.
Former separatist rebels and an ex-army general are among those vying for the top jobs of governor and deputy governor -- something unimaginable before the earthquake-spawned waves crashed into Aceh, killing an estimated 167,000 people and helping usher in a new era of peace.
"We have proved our commitment with lives, blood and tears," said Irwandi Yusuf, a former rebel political officer now considered one of the favorites for governor.
"These elections are important for all off Aceh, for all [former] fighters and for the future," he said.
There were no reports of poll violence, but police said unknown perpetrators detonated a small bomb inside a partially built school at dawn. There were no injuries or significant damage and the blast in northern Aceh did not disturb the voting, said police Lieutenant Colonel Mulyatno.
Officers found a second bomb at the scene, Mulyatno said, declining to speculate on a motive.
Turnout was expected to be high among Aceh's 2.6 million eligible voters.
After a slow start, people soon started pouring into voting booths, some set up next to temporary barracks where tens of thousands made homeless by the tsunami still live.
A "quick count" of votes from selected polling stations should allow accurate results to be known by late yesterday but official results will not be declared until Jan. 2.
Most analysts expected none of the eight candidates for governor to win an outright majority, meaning the top two will face a run-off vote early next year.
Text messages are also being used to conduct a rapid parallel count of the vote to help detect fraud, UN officials said.
Some 4,500 volunteers were to collect final results from all 8,741 polling stations and transmit them by SMS (text message) to a central server in the provincial capital Banda Aceh, the UN Development Program (UNDP), which is providing support to the elections, said in a statement. The SMS count was being conducted in conjunction with the official count to act as a check on vote tabulation lower down the line.
The UNDP said it was the first time in Indonesia that an electoral authority had conducted a complete parallel count by SMS text messaging.
"I'm excited to take part in the election because I am able to vote for a better leader to make Aceh more prosperous," said Yakinah, a 40-year-old housewife who goes by a single name.
"I want a good and clean leader who not only thinks of himself," she said after joining dozens of other voters at polling station in the provincial capital, Banda Aceh.
The oil-and-gas rich province on Sumatra island's northern tip has known almost nothing but war for 130 years, with its residents fighting would-be Dutch colonists, the Japanese and finally Indonesia's central government.
The war between Jakarta and the rebels killed some 15,000 people and was marked by human-rights abuses on both sides. Many of the victims were killed execution style, and poorly trained troops were frequently accused of torture.
Several peace pacts had collapsed byfore insurgents finally signed an agreement with the government on Aug. 15 last year.
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