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Calls grow to review single-day format after more than 100 poll workers die
Up to 108 election workers have died and more than 14,300 others have fallen ill as of Feb. 22, which has prompted soul-searching and calls to reassess whether the country really needs to hold the presidential and legislative elections on a single day.
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A local poll administrator (KPPS) takes a photo of vote tabulation forms during an election simulation on Feb. 7, 2024 in Indramayu, West Java. (Antara/Dedhez Anggara)
Amid a rise in deaths among poll workers over the past few days despite efforts to prevent fatalities during the 2024 election, questions have emerged on if the country should hold the presidential and legislative elections on a single day.
The Health Ministry reported on Saturday that at least 108 poll workers had died and more than 14,300 others had fallen ill between election day on Feb. 14 and Feb. 22. Heart attacks and hypertension caused the majority of deaths.
Of the total figure for deaths and illnesses among poll workers, paid volunteers recruited as local poll administrators (KPPS) by the General Elections Commission (KPU) dominated with 58 deaths and more than 7,200 falling ill.
The remainder comprised workers at subdistrict and district-levels polling committees, election monitors recruited by the Elections Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) and polling station officers tasked with maintaining order during voting.
The KPU imposed an age limit of 55 years and mandatory health screenings this year to prevent fatalities among the 5.7 million KPPS recruited to staff polling stations and manually count ballots.
The new measures were introduced in response to the tragic toll during the first simultaneous elections in 2019, when 6,000 KPPS fell ill and nearly 900 died from exhaustion and overwork.
Activist Khoirunnisa Agustyati of the Association for Elections and Democracy (Perludem) said simultaneous elections were too complex and put too heavy a workload on election workers, particularly local poll administrators.
