Over 200 election staff in Indonesia reported dead due to fatigue

JAKARTA: A total of 225 election staff were reported dead as of Thursday due to fatigue, as the vote counting process continues for the 2019 Indonesian General Elections (Pemilu 2019) and is scheduled to end by May 22.

Various quarters in Indonesia have expressed concern over the matter and urged a review of the nationwide simultaneous election concept.

Former Indonesian Constitutional Court chief justice Mahfud MD, has suggested for the system to be reverted to having presidential and legislative elections separately.

According to General Election Commission (KPU) Indonesia commissioner Viryan Aziz, apart from the deaths,1,695 staff were reported to have fallen ill.

The staff in question, most of who are aging local community leaders, were reported to have suffered from extreme fatigue, and in the process, fell ill or got involved in accidents.

On April 17, Indonesia carried out the biggest one-day election in the world, becoming the most complex polls based on regional size, geography, number of voters, organising of the elections and managing logistics.

The first simultaneous election was aimed at reducing costs, energy resources, implementation period, as well as reducing polemic and political crises in the world’s third largest democracy.

There are a total of 7.2 million election staff to manage 813,350 polling stations in the country, with 77.5 per cent of the 192,828,520 registered voters casting their ballots in the General Elections.

Each voter was given five ballot papers, namely to elect the president of Indonesia for the 2019-2024 term; members of the People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR), members of the People’s Representative Council (DPR), members of the Regional Representative Council (DPD) and members of the legislature.

KPU chief Arief Budiman said the election staff had worked without adequate rest to ensure the democratic process went smoothly, however, it put immense pressure on them to carry out the complex task.

Indonesian vice president Jusuf Kalla was also quoted by the Antara news agency that he was concerned with the incident, and that the Government would provide assistance of between 30 to 36 million Indonesian Rupiahs

However, there are also observers and political analysts who remain convinced that the simultaneous election system is the best, with only several adjustments required in its implementation.

The official results of Pemilu 2019 would only be announced by KPU progressively from April 25 to May 22, 2019, while the official announcement of results for the President and vice-President is scheduled on Oct 20, 2019.