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Election watchdog calls for review following deaths of officers
Polling station administrators had to work for days on end while fighting sleep deprivation.
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Night reader: A local poll administrator uses a smartphone to check ballots during the vote count on Wednesday at Lolu Utara, Palu, Central Sulawesi. The vote count ended after midnight. (Antara/Basri Marzuki)
I
ndonesia has been praised for its relative success in hosting simultaneous presidential and legislative elections, billed as the world’s biggest single-day and most complex elections.
More than 190 million people were eligible to vote at more than 800,000 polling stations across the country, with about 5 million people staffing the stations to count and report the election results. More than 400,000 military personnel and police officers were also involved to safeguard the whole process across the country on April 17.
However, the accomplishment has been overshadowed by dozens of reports about the deaths, presumably caused by exhaustion, of local poll administrators (KPPS) and security personnel who worked day and night prior, during and after voting day. These have prompted election watchdogs to urge the General Elections Commission (KPU) to review the concurrent elections to prevent a similar death toll in future elections.
According to the Association for Elections and Democracy (Perludem), at least 56 local poll officials had died during or after performing their duties at polling stations. Once appointed, poll administrators could not be replaced by other individuals.
One of them was Zulkifli Salamuddin, 45, who died on Friday after finishing counting votes in Medan, North Sumatra. The count went longer than initially scheduled because of a dispute during the process.
“He left home on Wednesday morning in a very healthy condition, but became ill upon returning from the polling station. I still can’t imagine this,” Zulkifli’s wife Sri Erwina said.
In Central Java, at least two administrators died during and after working in polling stations in Sukoharjo and Karanganyar. Fellow officers in Sukoharjo said the late officer, Yuli Anisah, 44, refused to leave her post during the vote count, although she had complained of feeling weak because of sleep deprivation.
