Indonesia went to polls on 17 April, with 193 million people voting on the same day. Ten days after the world's largest single-day elections, more than 270 elections officials have died, mostly due to fatigue-related issues caused by long work hours during counting of millions of ballot papers, Reuters reported citing officials on Sunday, 28 April.
This was the first time Indonesia combined its presidential vote with national and regional parliamentary elections, in order to cut costs and for an efficient election.
The Reuters report said that the country witnessed an 80 percent turnout, where the voters had to punch up to five ballot papers in over 8 lakh polling stations.
However, the one-day election took its toll on the polling officials - as of Saturday night, 272 officials had died, while 1,878 fell ill, the Indonesian General Election Commission’s (KPU) Spokesman was quoted by Reuters as saying.
The Health Ministry has issued a circular on 23 April urging health facilities to give utmost care for sick election staff, while the Finance Ministry is working on compensation for families of the deceased, the report further said.
The Election Commission. KPU has come under heavy fire due to the rising death toll.
(With inputs from Reuters.)