"This is a big job. In the recruitment, many young people, who have better health conditions, have been selected," the president stated after attending the 2023 National Consolidation Meeting for the Readiness of the 2024 General Elections held at Gelora Bung Karno here on Saturday.
Widodo made this statement in connection with precautionary measures taken to prevent fatigue-related deaths in election officers.
In the 2019 elections, at least 894 election officers had passed away, while 5,175 others had fallen ill.
The head of state explained that holding elections was a huge duty replete with numerous complex challenges. More than 204 million voters are spread across 38 provinces, 514 districts and cities, 7,277 sub-districts, and more than 83 thousand villages.
The democratic event will also involve 18 national political parties and six Acehnese local parties for the executive, national legislative, and regional legislative elections.
"We cannot imagine how complex our elections are," he remarked.
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Hence, the president emphasized that such an event requires officers having high stamina and capable of working for long hours.
"This is a heavy-duty (task), starting from morning to the next morning," he pointed out.
On that occasion, he reminded that voting day is only 45 days away.
"This demands all levels of the General Elections Commission (KPU) from the center to the regions to be ready to run elections that are honest, fair, and trusted by the people," he emphasized.
Earlier, the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) had urged election organizing institutions, such as the KPU and Bawaslu, to implement precautionary measures in recruiting voting organizing teams (KPPS) and polling station supervisors (TPS), such as by conducting strict health verification.
Related news: Need to prevent extreme fatigue among election officers: VP
Translator: Andi F, Kenzu
Editor: Yuni Arisandy Sinaga
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