Ahead of the February general election, the General Elections Commission (KPU) regional offices have recruited workers to sort and fold millions of ballots, creating a new source of income for many.

Some 200 million people will vote in the simultaneous presidential and legislative elections on Feb. 14, during which each voter will get a set of five pre-folded ballots.

For one 38-year-old housewife in Central Jakarta, who refused to give her name for safety reasons, her first time as a recruited worker to sort and fold ballots under the KPU South Jakarta office was an enjoyable experience to “keep me busy as a housewife and generate additional income.”

The woman told The Jakarta Post that she could fold around four boxes of 500 ballots each, every day from morning until the sun had set.

“I know that I still have the energy to keep [sorting and folding more ballots a day],” she said in mid-January at the Sarinah logistics warehouse in Pancoran, where the ballots for the South Jakarta electoral district were sorted and folded. “But since I am a housewife and have children at home, I usually finish at maghrib [dusk].”

She said that two days after starting the job, her waist and legs were already sore as all workers were required to stand while folding the ballots, adding that: “If we [the workers] want to sit and have a drink, then we have to get out [of the warehouse].”

Asked about the wage for ballot folders, she said that KPU staff members had not told her the specific amount, but claimed that they would pay workers weekly.

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