Aug 31, 2006

Acheh: Police Preparing 7,000 Personnel to Secure Voting Stations


Aceh police is preparing 7,000 personnel to secure around 9,000 voting stations to be set up for the first direct elections of regional leaders in the province scheduled on December 11
Aceh police is preparing 7,000 personnel to secure around 9,000 voting stations to be set up for the first direct elections of regional leaders in the province scheduled on December 11.

"The number is limited. We are only able to prepare 7,000 personnel to secure around 9,000 voting stations across the region. Around 2,000 stations are certain to have no police guards," Aceh police chief Inspector General Bahrumsyah Kasman told reporters here on Wednesday.

He said he may ask the military to provide at least 2,000 personnel to secure the elections of governor and vice governor and 19 district heads/mayors and vice district heads/mayors.

"The request is made in view of the limited number of police personnel for the elections," he said, adding that based on the memorandum of understanding signed by representatives of the government and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), only 9,100 police personnel were allowed in the region.

He said he would apply a priority system for the security of the elections, which means that he would not deploy any officer to guard a station which was considered safe and only one at a station considered less safe, and two or three at stations considered unsafe.

He said besides securing the elections, the police still maintain their routine assignments such as securing vital objects and foreigners such as members of the Aceh Monitoring Mission.

"Around 3,000 personnel will be prepared to support the routine assignments," he said, adding that this means the number of police personnel would reach 13,500, while only 9,100 are available.

He said ideally their number in Aceh should be around 15,600.More than two million people in the province are scheduled to participate in the regional elections, following the signing of the MoU to end the conflict which had raged since 1976 and had claimed more than 200,000 lives.