Over 270 Elections Officials Died in Indonesia from Overwork

Ten days after Indonesia held the world's biggest single-day elections, more than 270 election staff have died becaue of long hours of work, Reuters reported.

An official explained that most of the dead workers suffered fatigue-related illneses, for they spent hours counting millions of ballot papers by hand.

The April 17 elections were the first time the country of 260 million people combined the presidential vote with national and regional parliamentary ones, with an aim to cut costs.

Voting was largely peaceful and was estimated to have drawn 80 percent of the total 193 million voters, who each had to punch up to five ballot papers in over 800,000 polling stations.

But conducting the eight-hour vote in a country that stretches more than 5,000 km (3,000 miles) from its western to eastern tips proven to be deadly for officials, who had to count ballot papers by hand.

As of Saturday night, 272 election officials had died, mostly from overwork-related illnesses, while 1,878 others had fallen ill, said Arief Priyo Susanto, spokesman of the General Elections Commission (KPU).

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