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Polls run smoothly despite health fears
Despite the pall that hung over the elections, the contest looks more and more likely to be a success for two members of President Jokowi’s family.
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An elderly resident participates in the 2020 simultaneous regional head elections at the Kalitengah Lor voting booth in Glagaharjo, Magelang, Central Java, on Wednesday. Simultaneous regional elections were held in up to 270 regions across Indonesia. (JP /JP / Donny Fernando )
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ndonesia hosted its first simultaneous regional elections during a pandemic on Wednesday, in a string of contests that saw one election candidate succumb to COVID-19 and President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s son and son-in-law hoping to establish their political careers.
The government expressed its satisfaction over the single-day contest after a senior official claimed that health protocols were largely observed, even though an election watchdog insisted that many people were still at risk of infection.
Speaking at a press conference on Wednesday, Coordinating Legal, Political and Security Affairs Minister Mahfud MD said he was satisfied with how health protocols were implemented during the elections, citing a report he obtained from the national COVID-19 task force.
He had hoped the results would help assuage concerns that the polls could result in new transmission clusters.
“The public has been raising concerns over how the elections can become new sources of infections. But we hope we can prove them wrong after receiving a report saying that health protocols were in place during voting,” Mahfud said.
Nearly 600,000 cumulative coronavirus cases and more than 18,000 deaths have been recorded as of Wednesday, although the true scale of the outbreak could be much bigger given the country’s low testing rate.
In its report, the task force monitored the implementation of health protocols of 227,429 people – comprising voters and election organizers – at 34,000 voting stations in 299 cities and regencies holding elections.
