Q&A: Glyn Ford: ‘We care about nothing but a peaceful election in Aceh’

By Protus Tanuhandaru

Today is the day of Aceh’s gubernatorial election, a historic event in which more than 2,600,000 Acehnese are expected to cast their ballots, yet one that would not have been possible had Aceh not been struck by the tsunami and then undergone a peace process.

To ensure that the election passes off peacefully, the European Union Election Observation Mission (EU EOM), a European task force invited by the Indonesian government and Aceh Independent Election Commission (KIP), is monitoring the gubernatorial elections, from the preparation of voter’s registration cards, the candidates’ campaigns, the election day and the counting of the votes.

Glyn Ford, the chief observer of EU EOM, stressed the importance of the election a part of the sustainable peace process between the Indonesian government and the rebels, telling The Point over the weekend “our job is to assess the quality of the election and to ensure that nothing will go awry. Should something go wrong, then the peace process will be hampered."

Successful in observing the 2004 presidential election here, Ford has been appointed as the EOM chief observer. After observing campaigning by the candidates, Ford, along with other observers, is to monitor some of the polling stations across Aceh.

The following are excerpts of the interview:

Q: What do you expect from this election?
A: We personally don’t care who wins, but it is important for the people of Aceh to convey what they feel about the government and the political party they’re voting for. Our concern is to convince the losers to be able to face the loss and ensure that the Acehnese get what they’re voting for—the sort of officials they actually want.

Q: Are you optimistic about the election?
A: I am, because people are allowed to vote. There’s been little intimidation during the campaign and during the registration of voters, so apparently, it will be a peaceful election day. But things could go wrong however. The problems may come in the integrity of the vote count and the reaction of the losers—both the candidates and their supporters—who could become disgruntled. What I’m hoping for is that they know that the electoral process they are going through is democratic and that there will always be another opportunity to make changes.

Q: You said something could go awry during the election. Why so?
A: There will be mistakes made, at the polling stations and elsewhere, caused by human error, that is, people who don’t really understand what they’re doing. And we’re talking about more than 8,000 polling stations—some even located in remote areas. The acid test will be whether the mistakes are very significant or not worth taking into consideration.

Q: How many observers will be working to monitor these polling stations?
A: The number of people we have is close to 250, of which 80 are European and eight are the core teams who have been working here for six weeks and will stay here until the beginning of January. Joining them are 30 long-term observers who will be deployed across 21 districts for about a month, along with short-term observers who will come in for 8-9 days. For election day, we will have extra teams deployed in districts we consider need more observers.

Q: How many polling stations will these observers be able to visit?
A: I’m expecting our observers to visit at least 400 to 600 out of more than 8,000 polling stations.

Q: Where will you go personally?
A: I will go to Takengon, a very sensitive area, then back to Banda Aceh itself. Then I will be looking into the collection of votes and the vote count, but I’m only a small part of the election process.

Q: Why is Takengon very sensitive?
A: This highland area is difficult to deal with, as it is one area not really involved in the civil war.

Q: Will the political parties, having invested so much in the campaign, be able to accept losing, should they lose the campaign?
A: I hope so. In 2004, there was a reaction during the first round of the presidential election: General Wiranto contended that there was a major fraud in counting the votes. In our perception, however, there was no evidence of fraud on anything like the scale that would have been necessary to reverse the order and allow him to attain more votes than Megawati. People should be aware that sometimes they win, and more often they lose. The eight candidates contesting this election should understand: Only one candidate will win. Should this election, as part of the peace process, fail, we will go back to a period when Aceh experiences conflict. So the peace process and the resulting election are the last chance for peace for two or three generations of Acehnese.

Q: Why is European Union very concerned with Aceh?
A: The European Union, now bigger and richer than the U.S., is now looking to the Third World, half of the hemisphere of the globe, and working on foreign security policy on the global stage. We act by use of soft-power to help the transition of peace in Indonesia, which the largest Muslim state. Now the amount of money we spend on such a mission is less than 40-minutes spending in Iraq, making it good value for money. We believe in the development of democracy and are seeking to end any conflict. Knowing that in the past, there was a situation where the people who voted were the ones who controlled the system, we’re here in our capacity as independent observers to help monitor the election.

Q: Can you tell us how the peace process relates to the election?
A: The local elections in Aceh are part of the peace agreement ending the conflict. The peace agreement requires the holding of a provincial election in which independent candidates frpm GAM and other groups are allowed to participate for the first time, because in the past, the Indonesian legislation had not allowed regional parties to exist. (PRT)

Born in 1950 in Gloucester, U.K., Glyn Ford is the chief observer of the European Union Election Observation Mission—Aceh. Previously he was an academician, teaching science and technology policies, and was subsequently elected as a member of the European Parliament in 1994, dealing with foreign affairs and defense issues in East Asia, particularly North Korea.