Footage shows Indonesian doctors discussing poll worker deaths, not stating they were poisoned
- This article is more than one year old.
- Published on September 15, 2023 at 09:13
- 5 min read
- By AFP Indonesia
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"IDI (Indonesian Medical Association) has agreed that the deaths of polling station workers in the 2019 general elections were not caused by exhaustion but by poisoning," reads the Indonesian-language caption to a video shared on Facebook here on May 4, 2023.
The two-minute, 49-second video has since been watched more than 1,300 times.
The first 52 seconds of the video show newscasters explaining that the IDI stated the deaths of hundreds of election workers were not a result of exhaustion. The video then cuts to a group of doctors giving a press conference about the deaths.
Election authorities in Indonesia had come under fire for overburdening election workers after it was reported that hundreds had fallen ill or died following the April 17, 2019 vote (archived link).
Indonesia's General Elections Commission (KPU) said in January 2020 that more than 5,100 election workers had fallen sick and 894 had died (archived link).
The poll was the world's biggest single-day election as Indonesia's 193 million registered voters had the chance to cast their ballots in presidential and parliamentary elections on the same day for the first time (archived link).
Around six million election workers were deployed to 810,000 polling stations to handle the vote (archived link).
The country's next general elections -- scheduled for mid-February 2024 -- are poised to be just as large (archived link). According to the KPU, more than 204 million people will be eligible to vote for the country's president, legislators and councillors on the same day (archived link).
Similar videos were shared in posts on YouTube, TikTok, video-sharing app SmackVideo and here on X, formerly Twitter, racking up more than 180,000 views in total.
The IDI, however, did not conclude that election workers in 2019 had died from poisoning.
No mention of poisoning
The video shared in the false post consists of clips from two genuine news reports.
A combination of reverse-image and keyword searches on Google found that the first clip was taken from a news report posted on YouTube by Indonesian broadcaster Kompas TV on May 13, 2019 (archived link).
It is titled, "469 election polling station workers died, the cause was not exhaustion".
"The Indonesian Medical Association (IDI) stated that the main cause of death for hundreds of polling station workers after the April 17 elections was not fatigue," reads part of the video's Indonesian-language caption.
"Prior illnesses, such as heart and neurovascular diseases, triggered the fatalities of election workers, according to the IDI chairman during a public discussion at the IDI office."
The IDI event was also reported by other media here and here (archived links here and here).
There is no mention of poisoning in the Kompas TV report or other media reports about the IDI event.
The medical association has also denied the claim shared in the false post.
"IDI never made that statement," its spokesman Halik Malik told AFP on August 23, 2023.
Below is a screenshot comparison of the video used in the false post (left) and the Kompas TV video (right):
Another combination of reverse image and keyword searches on Google found the second clip -- published by Indonesian TV station iNews on YouTube on May 10, 2019 -- features a different press conference by another doctors' group (archived link).
The clip was also published on the iNews website here (archived link).
Its Indonesian-language headline reads, "Unnatural deaths of polling station workers, 42 doctors demand government to form a fact-finding team".
The iNews report reads: "A total of 42 cross-disciplinary physicians make a statement on the deaths of many polling station workers. The doctors from the National Health Community Concern (KKPB) group demand the government set up a fact-finding team."
The KKPB's press conference was also covered by other media here and here on May 9, 2019 (archived links here and here).
There is also no mention of poisoning as a possible cause of death in the iNews report or the reports from other media.
Below is a screenshot comparison of the video in the false post (left) and the iNews video (right):
Ministry investigation
Budiawan, a chemical toxicology expert and senior lecturer at the Department of Chemistry at the University of Indonesia, told AFP the claim election workers died from poisoning is baseless (archived link).
"It is not clear what poisonous substances are being claimed. There is no evidence, only assumptions or conjectures," he said on August 25, 2023.
An Indonesian Health Ministry statement in mid-May 2019 said most of those who died were between 50 and 70 years old (archived link).
It further said that based on the ministry's investigation, the deaths were caused by assorted illnesses, including myocardial infarction, diabetes, asthma, stroke, respiratory failure, meningitis, tuberculosis, sepsis, kidney failure, hypertension and multi-organ failure, except one fatality caused by an accident.
To avoid a similar tragedy, the KPU announced in April 2023 that people applying to become polling station workers for the 2024 election would need to be between the ages of 17 and 55 (archived link).
There had not been a maximum age for polling station workers in previous elections.
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