More than 193 million voters went to the polls in the elections on 17 April in Indonesia.

At least 1.878 other staff had fallen ill said Arief Priyo Susanto, spokesman of the General Election Commission, due to fatigue-related illnesses caused by long hours of work counting millions of vote papers by hand.

Officials of the General Election Commission announced Sunday that the death toll has risen to 272, which they announced 9 for the first day of the election.

Around 81% of the eligible voters cast their votes in more than 800.000 polling stations while more than 7 million people worked temporarily as election staff.

Indonesian Interior Minister Tjahjo Kumolo said that after the deaths of elections staff, the government has decided to hold the presidential and parliamentary elections at different times.

Vote counting process continues for 2 weeks in the election where 245,000 candidates contested.

ILKHA