Regional head elections held in Indonesia hinh anh 1Residents wash their hands before giving their votes in the regional head elections in an evacuation camp in Yogyakarta (Photo: Antara)

Jakarta (VNA) – More than 100 million voters in Indonesia were expected to head to the polling stations on December 9 to cast their vote in the simultaneous regional head elections (pilkada) in 270 regions comprising nine provinces, 224 districts and 37 cities.

Earlier, the Indonesian government announced that December 9 would be a public holiday and vote count is projected to wrap up on December 20.

2020 pilkada will decide the results of the presidential election in the next four years.

As the COVID-19 pandemic spurred concern over the spike of new cases, the Indonesian government in June decided to postpone the election date to December 9.

The country’s General Election Commission (KPU) has introduced health regulations for a total of 298,939 polling stations across the country. A separate voting location will be zoned off for voters whose body temperature is higher than 37.3 degree Celsius.

As of December 8, Indonesia had reported 586,842 COVID-19 infections, with a death toll of 18,000. At least four candidates died of COVID-19 and 60 others tested positive with the SARS-CoV-2 that causes the disease.

On the threshold of the election, thousands of poll workers were found to contract the virus./.

VNA