FORTY POLITICAL PARTIES TO CONTEST GENERAL ELECTIONS IN ACEH

Banda Aceh, June 10 (ANTARA) - A total of 40 local and national political parties are to participate in the 2009 general elections in Aceh Province to elect district-, provincial- and national-level legislators, president/vice president, a provincial election official said. "Simultaneous elections will be held throughout Indonesia but in Aceh they will be held in different way because 12 local political parties will also join the polls," the chairman of the Aceh Independent Commission on General Elections (KIP), Abdul Salam Poroh, said here on Tuesday. Twelve of the 35 national parties to join the polls in Aceh had been registered. The 12 parties were new parties while the 16 others had joined the 2004 polls, he said. "The 16 national parties need to register with the Aceh KIP again," he said. On the planned verification tests on local political parties in Aceh, he said they would be conducted after the passing of a bill on local political parties being discussed by members of the Aceh provincial legislative council (DPRD). "We cannot carry out factual verification tests because the bill on local political parties has not yet been passed by Aceh's DPRD. I hope discussions on the bill will be finished soon so that we can conduct the factual verification tests," he said.