Kartu Kampanye Pasangan Nomor 4, Humam Hamid–Hasbi Abdullah, Pilkada Aceh 2006 [Campaign Card of Candidate Pair No. 4, Humam Hamid–Hasbi Abdullah, 2006 Aceh Regional Election]

Abstract

An illustrated campaign card of the candidate pair for governor and deputy governor of Aceh with ballot number 4, Dr. Ir. H. A. Humam Hamid, M.A. and Drs. H. Hasbi Abdullah, M.Si., from the personal collection of Kamaruzzaman Bustamam Ahmad. The card comes from the Aceh Regional Head Election (Pilkada) of 11 December 2006, the first direct regional election in Aceh after the 2004 tsunami and the Helsinki peace agreement of 15 August 2005 between the Government of the Republic of Indonesia and GAM (the Free Aceh Movement), which for the first time also opened the way for independent candidates in accordance with Law No. 11 of 2006 on the Governing of Aceh. Humam Hamid is a sociologist and professor at Universitas Syiah Kuala, while Hasbi Abdullah was a figure close to GAM circles who later became Speaker of the Aceh House of Representatives (DPR Aceh); the election was won by the independent pair Irwandi Yusuf–Muhammad Nazar. The image of a hand holding a nail above the number 4 records the method of voting at that time: voters punched (perforated) the symbol of the candidate pair on the ballot paper with a nail in the voting booth (mencoblos). This method had been used since the 1955 General Election and throughout the New Order. In the 2009 General Election, punching was briefly replaced by ticking (mencontreng, marking a tick with a writing instrument), and then punching was reinstated from the 2014 General Election because it was considered easier to understand and produced fewer invalid votes. Campaigning has also changed: printed cards, stickers, posters, and billboards such as this are now complemented, and in part even replaced, by campaigns on social media, short videos, and chain messages on chat applications, which are cheaper, faster, and can target voters specifically. Vote counting has also begun to be assisted by technology such as the KPU's Sirekap application, and a number of villages have tried electronic voting (e-voting) in village head elections. This campaign card is an important visual document of Aceh's post-conflict democratic transition.