Indonesia's Aceh province goes to the polls Only 415 people out of the community of 6,000 villagers survived the tsunami. On the coastal road from the capital some of the remains of the devastation are still visible: mounds of rubble, the hollow skeleton of a house near lapping waves, and a mass grave. Aceh, on the western edge of the scattered Indonesian archipelago, enjoys broad autonomy and is an anomaly in a country where most of the 240 million people practise a moderate form of Islam. Alcohol is freely sold in the rest of Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim-majority nation, but it is banned in Aceh. In some of the province's regions, women are forbidden from wearing tight trousers. Gamblers and imbibers are publicly caned. Debate still churns in Aceh over whether adulterers should continue to be publicly flogged, or stoned to death. I want a good Muslim leader who upholds Islamic sharia in Aceh, but most importantly he must ensure peace and economic progress. We have suffered long during the conflict, and it is not a time to fight anymore, said Nuzurul, a 35-year-old driver voting in the capital. Mr Yusuf, who backs sharia but has opposed stricter enforcement, is challenged by four other hopefuls. Among them are Teungku Ahmad Tajuddin, a 49-year-old Islamic schoolteacher who wants stricter sharia laws but is not considered a serious contender, and 71-year-old Zaini Abdullah, who is backed by the powerful Aceh Party and is a former rebel like Mr Yusuf himself. "The election is clearly a competition between Irwandi ... and the Aceh Party," said Jakarta-based analyst Jan Lepeltak. Many Acehnese worry that the elections, which have been preceded by outbreaks of violence, could test a fragile peace that has prevailed since the decades-long insurgency ended. Much of the election tension has centred around Mr Yusuf, who like many other politicians had been a rebel with the now-defunct separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM), and his feud with the Aceh Party which was created by GAM in 2008. Divisions among the former GAM leaders have grown since the 2005 agreement with Indonesia that ended the war, with Yusuf saying he had survived an assassination attempt last month. The Aceh Party, which dominates the regional parliament, has been bitterly opposed to Yusuf for running as an independent. Authorities say that a series of fatal shootings and at least 57 cases of intimidation were reported in the run-up to the poll, many involving supporters of Yusuf and Abdullah, raising fears of unrest in the aftermath of the vote. "The potential for corruption is enormous, because of the possibility of terror and intimidation ... to ensure victory for a particular candidate," said Nyak Arief Fadhillah Syah, head of the Aceh elections supervisory committee. More than three million residents are eligible to vote at 9,786 polling stations that will remain open until 2:00pm. Results are expected by April 15, and candidates must garner more than 30 per cent of the vote for an outright win.