Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – The Ministry of Health (Kemenkes RI) revealed the reason why 84 members of the 2024 General Election (Pemilu) or Ad Hoc Agency died during the voting process for presidential and vice presidential candidate pairs (paslon) as well as legislative candidate members, Monday (19/2/2024 ).

According to the latest data from the Indonesian Ministry of Health, heart disease is the highest cause of death experienced by election officials in 2024, namely 19 people, followed by causes that are still confirmed, accidents and hypertension.

The Minister of Health (Menkes RI), Budi Gunadi Sadikin, said that as many as 6.8 million 2024 election officials had carried out health screening before going on duty. However, only 6.4 million people were declared healthy and without high risk.

“The 400 thousand are high risk. Well, many of these still escape,” said Budi in a press conference at the Indonesian Ministry of Health Office, Jakarta, Monday (19/2/2024).

“The highest risk is hypertension. There are a lot of people in Indonesia who have hypertension. So, please regulate your eating, don’t eat too much salt, sugar and fat. If possible, reduce smoking,” added Budi.

Meanwhile, the Minister of Home Affairs (Mendagri), Tito Karnavian, revealed that one of the main causes of illness and death of members of the 2024 Election Ad Hoc Body was fatigue due to working hours exceeding the time limit (overtime).

“Voting starts at 07.00 to 13.00. After that, the maximum vote count is up to 12 at night,” said Tito on the same occasion.

“However, yesterday there was a decision by the MK (Constitutional Court) to allow an additional 12 hours (vote recapitulation period) to be added to the following day. That’s a total of approximately 33 hours, not to mention preparations before voting,” he added.

Tito said that the Constitutional Court’s decision stated that the vote counting must be carried out without pause. However, the members of the 2024 Election Ad Hoc Body did not interpret this correctly. The officers considered this decision to mean working non-stop.

“Well, there is a reason that friends sometimes don’t understand, namely the Constitutional Court’s decision which states that the vote counting will be carried out without pause,” explained Tito.

“Without breaks, this is interpreted as not being allowed to move places, aka continuously, even though ideally humans should work continuously for a maximum of 10 hours according to the Ministry of Health. Well, this is one thing that might cause fatigue,” continued Tito.

Tito emphasized that officers were actually advised to rest when they started to feel tired. This is because the number of members on duty allows work to be carried out alternately when someone is taking a break.

“It doesn’t mean that individuals are constantly working. The process is still ongoing, there are calculations. If someone wants to go to the toilet, someone is tired, someone is very sleepy, they can rest,” said Plt. Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs.

“Meanwhile, his friends are doing the work. This is the understanding we convey so that they can understand that they can rest when they are very tired,” he continued.

Number of 2024 Election Officials Who Are Sick and Died

Photo: Officers at TPS-122, Kel. Sukapura, District. Cilincing (North Jakarta) (CNBC Indonesia/Fitriyah Said)

The General Election Commission (KPU RI), the General Election Supervisory Body (Bawaslu), and the Indonesian Ministry of Health revealed that as many as 84 members of the 2024 Election Ad Hoc Body died and 4,567 were sick.

Chairman of the Indonesian KPU, Hasyim Asy’ari, said that based on records from 14-18 February 2024, there were 71 members of the 2024 Election Ad Hoc Body consisting of members of the District Election Committee (PPK), Voting Committee (PPS), Voting Organizing Group (KPPS), and Community Protection (Linmas) died.

“There were 71 people who died, with details of one PPK member at the sub-district level, then four PPS members at the village/sub-district level, then 42 KPPS members at the PS level,” said Hasyim on the same occasion.

“Then Linmas, who was guarding the security of vote counting activities at the TPS, 24 people died,” he continued.

Apart from that, Hasyim also revealed that 4,567 people were declared sick, with details of 136 PPK members, 696 PPS members, 3,371 KPPS members and 364 Linmas members.

Meanwhile, member of Bawaslu RI, Herwyn Malonda, revealed that as many as 13 supervisors of the 2024 Election died during the 2024 Election.

“14 people [meninggal dunia] “from 14-19 February 2024. “Currently, reports are still being processed dynamically and continue to come to us,” said Herwyn on the same occasion.

Thus, the total number of members of the 2024 Election Ad Hoc Body who died as of the latest data is 84 people. In this regard, the Minister of Health (Menkes RI), Budi Gunadi Sadikin, said that this number had decreased drastically when compared to the 2019 Election.

“So there has indeed been a very drastic decrease in the number of election officials who died while on duty compared to the previous election (2019),” explained Budi.

“But we in the government, especially at the Ministry of Health, see that just one life lost is too many for us,” he added.

[Gambas:Video CNBC]

(hsy/hsy)