More than 270 election staff have died after long hours of work counting millions of ballot papers by hand.
Ten days after Indonesia held the world's biggest single-day elections, an official confirmed hundreds of workers had died of mostly of fatigue-related illnesses caused by counting the votes.
The April 17 elections were the first time the country of 260 million people combined the presidential vote with national and regional parliamentary ones, with an aim to cut costs.
Voting was largely peaceful and was estimated to have drawn 80 percent of the total 193 million voters, who each had to punch up to five ballot papers in over 800,000 polling stations.
But conducting the eight-hour vote in a country that stretches more than 5,000 km (3,000 miles) from its western to eastern tips proved to be a huge logistical feat and deadly for officials, who had to count ballot papers by hand.
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As of Saturday night, 272 election officials had died, mostly from overwork-related illnesses, while 1,878 others had fallen ill, said Arief Priyo Susanto, spokesman of the General Elections Commission (KPU).
The BBC reports election staff were ordered to work through the night following the April 17 vote, often in sweltering conditions - which took a severe physical toll on manyof the votecounters.
The Health Ministry issued a circular letter on April 23 urging health facilities to give utmost care for sick election staff, while the Finance Ministry is working on compensation for families of the deceased, Susanto added.
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The KPU has come under fire due to the rising death toll.
"The KPU is not prudent in managing the workload of staff," said Ahmad Muzani, deputy chairman of the campaign of opposition presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto, reported by news website Kumparan.com.
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Prabowo, who independent pollsters said was the loser of the 2019 polls based on quick counts, had alleged widespread cheating and his campaign claimed some officials punched ballots in favour of incumbent President Joko Widodo.
Widodo's security minister said the allegations were baseless.
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Both candidates have declared victory, though quick counts suggested Widodo won the election by around 9-10 percentage points.
The KPU will conclude vote counting and announce winners of the presidential and parliamentary elections on May 22.
According to reports, Indonesia's election commission plans to compensate families of workers who died 36 million rupiah (£1,930) for every deceased worker, which is currently equivalent to one year's pay at minimum wage in the country.
