Indonesian President Joko Widodo is wary of a number of new COVID-19 clusters.

Large crowds of registering participants for the 2020 regional election, also known as Pilkada, have caused concern among the government.

Footage filmed on September 5 and 6, in Bukittinggi, West Sumatra, shows a crowd of supporters of several mayoral candidates huddled together without social distancing and not wearing masks.

Indonesia, the world's third-largest democracy after the US and India, is once again gearing to hold simultaneous local elections in 270 regions, or nearly half of its territories, on December 9 this year.

Election preparations are usually hectic and the people enjoy the hustle and bustle of campaigning, interspersed with parades and musical performances by local artists.

The first simultaneous local elections were held in 2015, and again in 2017 and 2018. All of them were conducted relatively smoothly and peacefully.

But, this year, the simultaneous local elections will be different owing to the COVID-19 pandemic that has already claimed 8,336 lives and infected 203,342 people in Indonesia.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) is wary of a number of Covid-19 new clusters, one of which is the regional head election (Pilkada) cluster.

The fact that there were large crowds in registering participants for the 2020 Pilkada in a number of regions a few days ago made Jokowi worried.

Footage filmed on September 5 and 6, in Bukittinggi, West Sumatra, shows a crowd of supporters of three pairs of mayor candidates huddled together without social distancing, including not wearing masks, holding parades when registering with the city's General Election Commission (KPU).

Indonesia, the world's third largest democracy after the US and India, is once again gearing to hold simultaneous regional head elections (Pilkada) in 270 regions, or nearly half of its territories, on December 9 this year.

Election preparations are usually hectic and the people enjoy the hustle bustle of campaigning, interspersed with parades and musical performances by local artists.

The first simultaneous local elections were held in 2015, and again in 2017 and 2018. All of them were conducted relatively smoothly and peacefully.

But, this year, the simultaneous Pilkada will be different owing to the COVID-19 pandemic that has already claimed 8,336 lives and infected 203,342 people since the government announced the first confirmed cases on March 2, 2020.

As the Pilkada implementation process begins and the dates for the campaigning period draw closer, the number of COVID-19 cases in the country has shown an increase.

In fact, the novel coronavirus disease has become a real threat to local elections as the virus has infected several local election officers despite the implementation of health protocols.

In fact, several prospective candidate pairs participating in the elections in various regions have also reportedly been infected with COVID-19.