{"id":290755,"date":"2020-12-09T08:06:44","date_gmt":"2020-12-09T07:06:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/?p=290755"},"modified":"2020-12-09T08:07:07","modified_gmt":"2020-12-09T07:07:07","slug":"indonesia-holds-nationwide-poll-despite-virus-warnings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/?p=290755","title":{"rendered":"Indonesia holds nationwide poll despite virus warnings"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Indonesia<\/p>\n

Indonesia held nationwide regional elections Wednesday with more than 100 million voters expected to cast a ballot, despite warnings the poll would worsen the nation\u2019s Covid-19 crisis.<\/p>\n

The archipelago of nearly 270 million \u2014 the world\u2019s third-biggest democracy and fourth most populous nation \u2014 delayed the vote originally set for September as it struggled to contain soaring infection rates.<\/p>\n

But the polls were rescheduled, even as critics warned over the risks amid widespread violations of virus protocols, including mask-wearing and social distancing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m scared many more people will be infected and die\u201d after the polls, said Siti Zuhro, a political analyst at the Indonesian Institute of Sciences.<\/p>\n

Hundreds of hopefuls are vying for 270 positions, including regional governors, district heads and mayors, including President Joko Widodo\u2019s eldest son.<\/p>\n

Voting was expected to wrap up around noon local time (0500 GMT).<\/p>\n

More than 100 million Indonesians are registered to vote in the poll staffed by almost 2.7 million election workers, with some taking ballot boxes to hospitalised Covid patients.<\/p>\n

At least five election candidates have reportedly died so far and more than 1,000 election agency staff were infected ahead of voting day.<\/p>\n

More than 580,000 Indonesians have been confirmed as having contracted the illness while the death toll stands at 18,000.<\/p>\n

But the true scale of the crisis is widely believed to be much bigger in a country with one of the world\u2019s lowest testing rates.<\/p>\n

Infections could skyrocket above one million after polling day, warned Hermawan Saputra at the Indonesian Public Health Experts\u2019 Association.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe most worrying thing is that it won\u2019t be just young, healthy people casting their votes, but also the elderly, pregnant women and sick people \u2014 they\u2019re all at high risk,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe public service announcements and health protocols aren\u2019t enough. Health is being trumped by political demands and that\u2019s very concerning. It\u2019s not worth it.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the midst of the pandemic, voters have also had little chance to interact with candidates or understand their platforms, dealing a blow to a democracy that rose from the ashes of the Suharto dictatorship two decades ago, analysts said.<\/p>\n

Widodo\u2019s son Gibran Rakabuming Raka, 33, is running for mayor of Solo city in Central Java, where his father, a former furniture seller better known as Jokowi, started in politics.<\/p>\n

Jokowi\u2019s son-in-law is also vying for office, stirring questions about whether Indonesia\u2019s leader is trying to create a political dynasty more than a year into his second and final term.<\/p>\n

Vice-president Ma\u2019ruf Amin\u2019s daughter and Defense minister Prabowo Subianto\u2019s niece are also running for elected positions.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Islamist parties are looking to score big gains in the world\u2019s biggest Muslim-majority nation as they ride a tide of rising religious conservatism.<\/p>\n

[AFP]<\/p>\n

Vanguard News Nigeria<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Indonesia held nationwide regional elections Wednesday with more than 100 million voters expected to cast a ballot, despite warnings the poll would worsen the nation\u2019s Covid-19 crisis. The archipelago of nearly 270 million \u2014 the world\u2019s third-biggest democracy and fourth most populous nation \u2014 delayed the vote originally set for September as it struggled to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":290756,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[14173,5482],"class_list":["post-290755","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-coronavirus","tag-indonesia"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290755","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=290755"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290755\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/290756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=290755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=290755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=290755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}