There's been a ton of coverage in international media and you can read them if you want in-depth coverage. But to give you the overview, there were 8 pairs of gubernatorial candidates. There were 1.5 pairs of GAM-affiliated candidates, but GAM did not officially endorse anyone, thus the candidates ran as independents. The guy who's the projected winner - Irawandi was a political prisoner and was actually in jail in Banda Aceh at the time of the tsunami. The water knocked down the prison and he escaped. He also is a OSU (Oregon) alum and studied veterinarian medicine there. In pre-election polls 2 weeks prior, he was not even in the top 3. The quickcounts have him at 39% (in 2 separate polls). It came as a big shock to most election insiders because the pre-election pools did not have any candidate above 25%. Some have attributed his win to grassroot level mobilization in the previous GAM stronghold areas in North Aceh. That area is also most densely populated area in Aceh. Another reason may be because Irawandi was seen as the traditional Acehnese candidate, not backed by any national party. So, an undecided rural voter would likely vote for him. On a side note, 77% of Acehnese live in a rural setting.
On Monday, I came back from Jakarta around noon, so I missed out on all the election observing hoopla (most polling stations closed around noon). I attended the 2 evening press conferences at the local 4-star hotel that night to hear the results from the 2 separate organizations doing quick count. The hotel lobby was packed with international journalists, local and international NGO reps and election junkies like me.
While we were having dinner, Irawandi walked past our table and sat down in the private glass-enclosed room. He was all smiles.
He's the fuzzy guy sitting down with glasses. We were all star struck.
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