SINGAPORE — More than 100 Indonesian election workers and police officers have died from exhaustion following the simultaneous presidential and legislative polls held in the country last week, according to a report by Bloomberg.

Over seven million workers had been deployed in the elections, which saw almost 245,000 candidates vie for about 20,000 posts. It was the first time that voters had chosen the president and members of the national parliament on the same day in the world’s third largest democracy.

The country’s coordinating minister for political, legal, and security affairs Wiranto told Bloomberg that 139 officials were confirmed dead as of Wednesday (April 24), while the General Elections Commission said more than 500 fell ill after the vote.

The deaths had triggered calls for a review of the simultaneous presidential and legislative polls, Bloomberg said.

The elections on April 17 saw the participation of an estimated 81 per cent of the 193 million eligible voters in the country, Bloomberg reported.

Vote counting is still in progress, though unofficial quick counts showed incumbent Joko Widodo winning the race by about 10 percentage points over his challenger Prabowo Subianto.

This year’s presidential election is a rematch of the 2014 polls which saw Mr Widodo beating Mr Subianto by 6 percentage points.

The official results will be announced by the election commission on May 22.

In a statement this week, minister of home affairs Tjahjo Kumolo said that the Indonesian government will review the concurrent elections in parliament “to ensure the process is more efficient and effective”, Bloomberg reported.

The election commission plans to discuss separating the presidential and legislative elections with a lawmakers’ panel overseeing the rules and the government, CNN Indonesia reported, citing Mr Viryan Azis, a commissioner.

Indonesian vice-president Muhammad Jusuf Kalla, who called this year’s poll “the most complicated”, has also backed a review of the simultaneous elections to ease the burden on officials, according to Detik.com. AGENCIES