The upcoming election in Indonesia 's former rebellious province of Aceh needs at least 10,000 election observers to help ensure just and democratic regional polls on Dec. 11, analyst has said.

The number of observers was still far from sufficient, with only 800 registering so far.

"The number of registered observers is still very small. We will wait until Nov. 22 because we need at least 10,000 observers to monitor each polling station," Ikhwanussufa of the Independent Election Committee in Aceh (KIP Aceh) was quoted Saturday by The Jakarta Post newspaper as saying.

Ikhwanussufa said four foreign monitoring institutions had registered at KIP Aceh -- the Republican Institute with 10 observers, European Union with eight people, the Asian Network Free Elections (Anfrel) 10 people, and the American consulate with six people.

"They are still in the process of applying for visas," Ikhwanussufa said.

Local institutions registering include the People's Voters Education Network with 138 people, Forum of Aceh Non-governmental Organizations (441) and the Aceh Recovery Program (218).

The Aceh Strategy Assessment Center and the Center for the Independent Elections Monitoring Committee have not assigned volunteers yet.

All the observers are set to monitor elections throughout Aceh. This is different from the earlier limited monitoring activities allowed when the province was under military rule.

According to a government regulation, representatives of other countries are allowed to become observers in Aceh's elections as long as they join accredited observer institutions from their respective countries.

Those from European Union countries must join the EU's Election Observation Mission while those from Asian countries will become part of the Asian Network for Free Elections.

Source: Xinhua