With 200 Million Voters and Over a Month of Counting... Island Nation Takes Steps to Prevent '900 Overwork Deaths'

About 900 Deaths During 2019 Election Process
Presidential, General, and Local Elections Held in One Day Causing Overwork
205 Million Voters in This Year's Election

In Indonesia, the world's fourth most populous country, health checks will become mandatory when hiring election workers in the future. This is because hundreds of election workers (KPPS) died from overwork during the 2019 presidential election.

On the 16th (local time), The Jakarta Post and others reported that the Indonesian General Elections Commission (KPU) is recruiting election workers who will conduct vote counting and other tasks in the presidential and parliamentary elections scheduled for the 14th of next month. This year's number of voters reaches 205 million, and Indonesia holds both presidential and parliamentary elections on the same day, requiring a large workforce. To this end, the KPU plans to hire 5.7 million election workers and operate over 820,000 polling stations nationwide.

On the 15th (local time), election officials are organizing ballots for the presidential election to be held on the 14th of next month at an election management office in Bogor, West Java Province, Indonesia.
[Image source=Yonhap News]

However, unlike previous years, the KPU has limited the age of election workers to 55 years or younger and requires submission of a health check certificate including blood pressure, blood sugar, and cholesterol levels. This preemptive measure appears to be taken to prevent a recurrence of the approximately 900 election workers who died from overwork in the last election.

The schedule of Indonesia's general and presidential elections differs significantly from that of South Korea. In South Korea, results for both general and presidential elections are known within 24 hours of vote counting. In contrast, Indonesia's voting day for the 2024 presidential and general elections is February 14, and vote counting begins that day, but the tallying process continues for more than a month, from February 15 to March 20. If no candidate surpasses the majority in the presidential election, a runoff election is held. If a runoff occurs, it will take place on June 26. Subsequently, local elections to elect governors, mayors, and regents are scheduled for October 27.

Previously, Indonesia held the presidential, general, and local elections all on the same day in April 2019. With 190 million voters participating in this massive election in a single day, election workers stayed up for several nights before and after the election to prepare polling stations, manage voting, count votes, and verify ballots. As a result, hundreds died. There were also cases where election workers died in traffic accidents while transporting ballot boxes from mountainous villages or remote islands.

At that time, the KPU reported that 894 people, including election workers and police officers, died during the election process, and 5,175 showed symptoms of health problems. The Indonesian Ministry of Health explained that most of the deceased election workers were in their 50s to 70s and suffered from health conditions such as diabetes and hypertension. However, some conspiracy theories alleging poisoning of the deceased election workers emerged, claiming election fraud. The KPU plans to recruit as many young people as possible as election workers in this year's presidential and general elections to prevent such incidents from recurring. To this end, the election worker wage has been set at 1.1 million rupiah (approximately 94,000 won), more than double that of 2019.

Meanwhile, the U.S. think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) analyzed that 60% of Indonesian election voters belong to the MZ generation (Millennials + Generation Z). Accordingly, each political party is appealing to young voters by featuring famous Korean singers. In fact, the Indonesian opposition party Gerindra promised voters that if they take a photo in front of their presidential candidate's billboard and tag it, they would enter a raffle to win tickets to a BLACKPINK concert. The reason political parties are betting heavily on famous Korean singers is to gain votes through young people's 'Hallyu love.' However, young voters are raising critical voices, saying they want visions presented rather than the use of celebrities.