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KPU's youth volunteer drive to prevent election deaths gains traction

To avoid a repeat of the elections in 2019, when nearly 900 volunteers died from overwork or health complications related to their duties, the KPU has put an age cap for election organizers and embarked on a campaign to recruit younger volunteers for 2024.

Fikri Harish (The Jakarta Post)
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Jakarta
Wed, December 7, 2022

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KPU's youth volunteer drive to prevent election deaths gains traction Local poll administrators (KPPS) in Banjarsari district of Surakarta, Central Java, wear orange uniforms that read, “not Corruption Eradication Committee [KPK] detainees”, to mark International Anticorruption Day while on duty on Dec. 9, 2020. (JP/Ganug Nugroho Adi)

T

he General Elections Commission (KPU) has started recruiting volunteers to help organize the 2024 polls by targeting university students, which has gained wide approval according to a Kompas survey, especially in light of the many volunteers who died of overwork or illness during the previous election in 2019.

The KPU regularly recruits paid volunteers in the run-up to an election to work at their region’s district polling committee (PPK) or subdistrict polling committee (PPS), or as local poll administrators (KPPS) at the level of neighborhood units (RTs), community units (RWs) and villages.

The 2024 simultaneous elections are expected to be one of the world’s biggest, requiring an unprecedented level of endurance and coordination among election organizers, including volunteers and ad hoc staff.

The KPU recorded close to 900 fatalities among election organizers in 2019, while thousands more developed health complications from their heavy workload of manually counting ballots. The majority of deaths were among volunteers aged between 50 and 70.

To limit the death toll among election organizers in 2024, the commission has set the minimum age for volunteers to 17 and the maximum to 55.

“We’re committed to improving the election process at the ad hoc level,” KPU commissioner Parsadaan Harahap told The Jakarta Post on Monday. “One suggestion we have acted on is to lower the age requirements,” he added.

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The KPU is coordinating with the Education, Culture, Research and Technology Ministry to galvanize engagement among the youth, enticing students with extra university credits in exchange for their work as ad hoc election staff, in addition to monetary rewards.

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