The MER-C's move was revealed by this medical non-governmental organization's presidium chairman, dr.Sarbini Abdul Murad, in response to the deaths and sickness of so many polling station working committee staff after fulfilling their electoral duties.
The humanity and mitigation measures that MER-C team members would take were not only directed to the sick members of the polling station working committees but also to those who died, Murad said in a press statement that ANTARA quoted here on Sunday.
Thus, the MER-C team would possibly conduct autopsies on deceased workers of the polling stations to find out the real causes of their deaths, he said, adding that Indonesia's National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) was also expected to have a common concern on this issue.
The deaths of over 500 members of polling station working committees across Indonesia have encouraged MER-C and the human rights commission to explore potential cooperation on issues of humanity.
"We discussed various domestic and international issues of humanity," Sarbini Abdul Murad said in connection with the meeting of MER-C with the human rights commission at its headquarters on Friday (May 10).
The MER-C team members are keen to help the people at large have certain information on the deaths and sickness of the polling station workers by finding out their causes, and taking appropriate measures and solutions to prevent similar miseries from recurring in future general elections," he said.
In connection with this issue, Komnas HAM Chairman Ahmad Taufan Damanik said he has also set up an elections supervisory team to find out the causes of the deaths of polling station staff.
To this end, the human rights commission's team had held a coordinating meeting with the representatives of the University of Indonesia (UI) Medical Faculty and Indonesian Doctors Association (IDI).
However, Komnas HAM would be happy to extend its cooperation with other credible parties, including MER-C, because the fact finding results would have been publicly announced prior to the General Elections Commission's (KPU's) official announcement on manual vote recapitulations on May 22, Damanik said.
Reporter: Rahmad Nasution
Editor: Fardah Assegaf
Copyright © ANTARA 2019
