FACTBOX: Tense Aceh a key test as Indonesia faces polls

(Reuters) - Indonesia's Aceh province will take part in parliamentary elections next month for the first time since the signing of a peace deal in 2005 between the government and separatist rebels.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who is seeking a second term in office this year, has visited the province twice in two months and has a key stake in ensuring that the peace process signed during his administration remains on course, particularly as tensions have risen in Aceh recently.

Some blame factions within the Indonesian military for recent attacks on members of Aceh's political parties. In the military's view, some of the former rebels still want resources-rich Aceh to secede from Indonesia.

About 15,000 people died during three decades of conflict between the secessionist Free Aceh Movement (GAM) and the Indonesian armed forces. But when more than 170,000 people died in the area in the devastating tsunami in December 2004, it provided a catalyst for both sides to reach a peace agreement.

Along with the national parties, six local parties, including the Aceh Party, comprised mainly of former GAM rebels, will contest the April 9 parliamentary elections.

PEACE IN ACEH AND WHAT IS AT STAKE?

* Peace and security are among President Yudhoyono's most important achievements during his five-year term -- no mean feat for a country that was ruptured by social unrest, religious conflict and internal security threats from militant Islamic groups after former President Suharto resigned in 1998.

The peace deal in Aceh, brokered by his vice president, Jusuf Kalla, ended decades of conflict and allowed the reconstruction of the tsunami-hit areas to go ahead successfully.

* Aceh's success is seen as a possible model for resolving the long-running separatist conflict in Papua, in the easternmost part of Indonesia.

The government recently opened talks with an exiled rebel leader in a bid to go along this path, and has floated the Aceh model as a possible fix for other conflicts, including a Muslim insurgency in southern Thailand.

* Several soldiers in Aceh were recently disciplined after being accused of abusing local Aceh Party members and for pulling down election flags, and a new police chief, from outside the province, was appointed to improve law enforcement.

* The former GAM rebels will be tested on their commitment to the 2005 Helsinki agreement, which stipulated that they must drop all claims for independence and hand over large arms caches. It is widely suspected that not all of the arms were handed in.

* The election is seen as a test of sharia law. Staunchly Muslim Aceh is the only province in officially secular Indonesia that is allowed to use sharia law, as part of an agreement under the autonomy deal, but there is some dissent among the former rebels over its use.

* Now that the post-tsunami reconstruction is winding down, Aceh needs to attract investment, and maintaining peace is vital for the development of its abundant resources including coffee and gas.

(Reporting by Olivia Rondonuwu and Ed Davies)