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Millions of Indonesians will vote in local elections across the country on Wednesday amid the coronavirus pandemic, the country’s interior minister said Tuesday, adding that he hoped well-instituted health protocols would encourage all voters to cast. your votes.
Meanwhile, the country’s Election Supervision Agency (Bawaslu) said that more than 1,400 of the nearly 300,000 polling stations were not equipped to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
“We know that the simultaneous regional elections for the first time in the history of the Indonesian nation will take place amid an unnatural disaster, the COVID-19 pandemic,” Interior Minister Tito Karnavian said in a teleconference on Tuesday.
“Hopefully the voters don’t worry about coming to the polling stations as long as the health protocols are well implemented. We are trying to prevent the transmission of COVID-19 during all stages of the elections. “
More than 100 million people can vote for nine governors, 223 regents and 37 mayors.
As of Tuesday, 1,420 polling stations on the islands of Sumatra and Borneo did not have safe waiting places, hand washing stations, electronic temperature measurement devices and disposable gloves, Bawaslu said.
“In these places, compliance with the health protocols established by the electoral commission is still low,” Bawaslu member Mochammad Afifuddin told BenarNews.
Indonesia is the main focus of the East Asian coronavirus. The country recorded 5,292 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, bringing the total number of infections to 586,842. The death toll related to the virus increased by 133, to 18,000.
Before what officials call the largest simultaneous local election in the country’s history, 1,023 poll workers tested positive for COVID-19, Bawaslu officials said.
Additionally, at least 63 candidates had tested positive for the coronavirus, including three who had died from being infected.
Arief Budiman, chairman of the General Elections Commission, or KPU, said voting officers who tested positive for COVID-19 would be replaced. He and two KPU members have also contracted COVID-19.
“I have asked them to be replaced, and under certain conditions, the KPU regulations would allow five people,” at each polling station, Arief told reporters during a teleconference.
Previous requirements called for at least seven workers at each polling station, to ensure that health guidelines such as social distancing and wearing masks were followed.
The surveys could lead to an increase in infections, said Tri Yunis Miko Wahyono, an epidemiologist at the University of Indonesia.
“Obviously it is impossible to cancel the elections. Hopefully the government is prepared for the consequences, including the shortage of medical personnel and hospitals to the max, ”Yunis told BenarNews.
Globally, more than 6.6 million people have been infected by the coronavirus and more than 177,000 have died, according to disease experts at Johns Hopkins University, based in the United States.
Vaccine update
Meanwhile, state pharmaceutical company Bio Farma retracted its comments the day before on Tuesday night about the alleged efficacy of a COVID-19 vaccine it is testing for Chinese developer Sinovac Biotech.
Bio Farma is conducting phase three trials for the Sinovac vaccine in Indonesia, involving 1,600 volunteers.
Bio Farma spokesman Iwan Setiawan said early data indicated that 97 percent of those injected with the Sinovac vaccine developed antibodies.
That is, the vaccine had a seroconversion rate of 97 percent, with “seroconversion” being the development of an immune antibody as a result of vaccination.
Bio Farma had said earlier Tuesday that the Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine had an efficacy rate of 97 percent, but Iwan later said that the company intended to announce that the seroconversion rate was 97 percent in the phase three trials.
“In terms of efficacy, we will have to wait until January for the end of the third phase trial to get full data. In January we will find out if the presence of antibodies provides protection against COVID-19, ”Iwan said.
Phase three clinical trials are ongoing and an interim report is expected to be released in January only, Bio Farma said in a statement issued Tuesday.
Meanwhile, China’s Jiemian news website, citing a Sinovac spokesman in Beijing, said on Tuesday that the company had not yet obtained data on the vaccine’s efficacy.
Ongoing trials in Brazil would generate such data, the spokesperson told the news site.
Indonesia received 1.2 million doses of the Sinovac vaccine on Sunday. Only the full results of the phase three trials will determine whether Indonesia authorizes the vaccine for emergency use starting in January.
Bio Farma has also been contracted to begin producing the Sinovac vaccine early next year, but only pending the results of phase three clinical trials.
On Monday, the Minister of Human Development and Culture announced that the Indonesian Council of Ulema, the country’s leading authority on Islamic affairs, had completed its evaluation of the Sinovac vaccine.
“The government will ask the MUI to immediately issue a halal certification for the [Sinovac] COVID-19 vaccine, ”said Minister Muhadjir Effendy.
“But because we are in an emergency period, even if it is not halal, it must be used.”
Globally, more than 6.6 million people have been infected by the coronavirus and more than 177,000 have died, according to disease experts at Johns Hopkins University, based in the United States.
Pre-election riots
In Papua province on Tuesday, the government postponed the regent election in Boven Digoel following a dispute, which sparked riots late last month by supporters of one of the candidates, the interior minister said.
The dispute erupted after the electoral commission disqualified Yusak Yaluwo and his running mate Yakob Weremba, who are backed by the Democratic, Golkar and Perindo parties.
On November 30, Yusak’s supporters rioted and attacked police, journalists and the regency office building, according to authorities.
The commission ruled that Yusak was unable to run because he had been sentenced after his conviction on a corruption charge and had completed probation only three years ago.
The law stipulates that ex-convicts cannot run for public office for five years after serving their sentences.
Yusak appeals the decision.
However, voting in 10 other regencies in Papua, where a separatist insurgency has been brewing for decades, will continue despite security concerns. Papua police spokesman Ahmad Musthofa Kamal said 600 riot police would be dispatched to the regencies on Wednesday.
“Even though there are security threats, it is our responsibility to ensure that the elections go smoothly, safely and peacefully,” Kamal told reporters.
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