The Aceh Party ( id, Partai Aceh) is a regional
political party
A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific ideological or p ...
in
Indonesia
Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...
. It contested the 2009 elections in the province of
Aceh, and is the largest party in the
Aceh provincial legislature.
History
The Aceh Party was formerly known as GAM Party (''Partai GAM'') after the
Free Aceh Movement
The Free Aceh Movement ( id, Gerakan Aceh Merdeka, GAM; ace, Geurakan Acèh Meurdèka / Gěrakan Aceh Měrdeka) was a separatist group seeking independence for the Aceh region of Sumatra, Indonesia. GAM fought against Indonesian government f ...
(GAM), a
separatist group that waged a
war for Aceh independence from 1976 to 2005. Many of the party's leaders were senior figures in GAM, including its chairman
Muzakir Manaf, who was a former commander of GAM's military wing.
2009 elections
The party stood in the
2009 elections
The following elections occurred in the year 2009.
* Electoral calendar 2009
* 2009 United Nations Security Council election
Caribbean
* 2009 Antiguan general election
* 2009 Aruban general election
* 2009 Caymanian constitutional referendu ...
in Aceh, and was predicted to win in at least 15 of Aceh's 21 regencies. The party set a target of 70% of the Aceh vote. During the election campaign, party buildings and vehicles were attacked, including the use of grenades and bombs. Shots were fired at party members. On several occasions,
Indonesian Armed Forces
, founded = as the ('People's Security Forces')
, current_form =
, disbanded =
, branches =
, headquarters = Cilangkap, Jakarta
, website =
, commander-in-chief = Joko Widodo
, ...
personnel lowered Aceh Party flags.
The party won 46.91% of the votes in the province, by far the largest share, beating both local and national parties. This was enough to give it 33 of the 69 seats in the provincial legislature.
2012 election
Zaini Abdullah of the Aceh Party was elected with 55.9% of the vote in the
Acehnese gubernatorial election of 2012.
2014 elections
The party contested the
2014 legislative elections, again only in Aceh. Despite optimistically claiming it would win 60 to 70% of the Acehnese vote during the election campaign, its vote fell sharply to 35.3 percent, although this was enough for a plurality. One reason for the drop in its vote was the internal party conflict that had raged since February 2011, which led to several Aceh Party members to leave to establish the
Aceh National Party. The Aceh Party won 29 of the 81 seats in the provincial legislature.
References
{{Indonesian political parties
Nationalist parties in Indonesia
Political parties in Indonesia