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| Former separatist rebel Zaini Abdullah was announced as the winner of Aceh's gubernatorial election on Tuesday. Zaini, of the Aceh Party, vowed to fight corruption and instill a "purer" form of sharia law in the only Indonesian province under Islamic law. Zaini and his running mate Muzakir Manaf will serve as governor and vice-governor from 2012 to 2017. (EPA Photo) |
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Banda Aceh.
Indonesia’s Aceh province Tuesday elected a former rebel as governor, who vowed
to implement a “purer” form of sharia in what is the country’s only region to
practice the Islamic law.
The
election was seen as a test of Aceh’s fragile peace following a 30-year
separatist war that ended in 2005, and a devastating tsunami that destroyed
entire towns in 2004.
The
powerful Aceh Party’s Zaini Abdullah — the former “foreign minister” of the
defunct rebel Free Aceh Movement (GAM) — beat four other candidates in a
landslide victory in the largely autonomous province.
“The
candidate pair Zaini Abdullah and Muzakir Manaf... will serve as governor and
vice governor for the period 2012 to 2017,” Aceh electoral commission head
Abdul Salam Poroh announced.
Abdullah
won with 1.3 million votes, more than 55 percent, while his main rival,
incumbent and independent Irwandi Yusuf, came second with around 30 percent.
Abdullah is
credited as a key negotiator in a 2005 agreement with the central government
that granted special autonomy to Aceh, which sits on the northern tip of
Sumatra island.
The
Helsinki Memorandum of Understanding, in which the rebels agreed to lay down
arms, put an end to 30 years of bloody unrest in which more than 15,000 people
died, and gave Aceh the freedom to implement sharia laws.
Abdullah,
71, said he was “deeply moved” to have been elected, vowing to eradicate
corruption in government, and boost the local the economy by developing the
agriculture and fisheries industries.
He also
said he would seek to pass a new bill to implement “purer” sharia laws, which
are not in force anywhere else in Indonesia, where the vast majority practice
moderate Islam.
“We will
meet with ulema and discuss a new sharia bill that can be accepted by all
Acehnese,” he said.
“Sharia is
about how to educate our youths about what is right and wrong.”
The vote on
April 9 came after months of political maneuvering by Abdullah and his party,
which tried to see independents like Yusuf disqualified from running.
Yusuf’s
campaign team accused the Aceh Party of intimidating voters to back Abdullah by
using threats of violence and kidnappings, allegations the party denies.
Around 200
Aceh Party supporters at parliament house cheered upon hearing of Abdulla’s
victory, yelling “Allahu Akbar” (“God is greatest”) and “Long live Zaini
Abdullah”.
Abdullah, a
trained physician when GAM was formed in 1976, quickly rose to the top ranks of
the rebel group while working as a doctor.
But the
central government eventually named him a wanted man and he fled to the jungle,
according to the Aceh Party, moving to Sweden in 1981, where he lived in exile
for 24 years.
Abdullah’s
win boosts the power of the Aceh Party, which already dominates parliament.
Sporadic
politically-motivated violence continues in the restive province, with more
than a dozen fatal shootings in the six months ahead of the election.
The 2005
agreement between Jakarta and the rebels was also made in the spirit of
rebuilding Aceh after the devastating tsunami in 2004 killed 170,000 in
Indonesia, the vast majority in Aceh.
Agence France-Presse
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