It’s been 10 days after Indonesia conducted the world’s biggest single-day elections, above 270 election staff have expired, largely of fatigue-related illneses a result of long hours of work counting enormous ballot papers manually , an official claimed on Sunday(April 28).

The April 17 elections were the very first time the country of 260 million people joined the presidential vote with national together with regional parliamentary ones, with an attempt to reduce costs.

Voting was mostly peaceful and was estimated to have pulled 80% of the total 193 million voters, who each required to punch around 5 ballot papers in over 800,000 polling stations.

But conducting the eight-hour vote in a nation that extends more than 5,000km (3,000 miles) from its western to eastern points proved to be both a Herculean logistical task and toxic for officials, who required to count ballot papers by hand.

At the time of Saturday night, 272 election officials had died, primarily from overwork-related illness, while 1,878 others had fallen ill, stated Arief Priyo Susanto, spokesman of the General Elections Commission (KPU).

The Health Ministry issued a circular notice on April 23 urging health amenities to give best care for unwell election staff members, while the Finance Ministry is working on compensation for families of the departed soul, Susanto added in.

The KPU has come under flames due to the increasing death toll.

“The KPU is not prudent in managing the workload of staff,” stated Ahmad Muzani, deputy chairman of the campaign of opposition presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto, as outlined by local news website.

Prabowo, who independent pollsters stated was the loser of the 2019 polls based on quick counts, had perceived widespread cheating and his campaign claimed some officials punched ballots in favor of incumbent President Joko Widodo. Widodo’s security minister stated the allegations were baseless.

Both candidates was declared victory, though quick counts recommended Widodo won the election by around 9-10% points.

The KPU will conclude vote counting as well as announce winners of the presidential and parliamentary elections on May 22.