Sleepless Nights For Indonesia's Election 'losers'

Political hopeful Yayat Abdurahman bet that he would be a winner among some 245,000 candidates in Indonesia's huge election last week, but his dreams of public office are fading fast as the votes get tallied

Cirebon, Indonesia, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 24th Apr, 2019 ) :Political hopeful Yayat Abdurahman bet that he would be a winner among some 245,000 candidates in Indonesia's huge election last week, but his dreams of public office are fading fast as the votes get tallied.

"At the beginning I was optimistic and feeling confident," he said.

"I thought 'I have to win, I have to get the most votes'. But now I'm feeling more doubtful." If Abdurahman loses when the world's third-biggest democracy publishes official results next month, he won't be alone.

"They have run out of money and don't know how they'll pay off their debts," he added.

Hospitals nationwide have been gearing up for an expected influx of post-poll patients seeking treatment for stress, depression and other maladies -- an election-time staple in the Southeast Asian archipelago.

Among them is a psychiatric hospital in Makassar on Sulawesi island that did a pre-election renovation to make way for wounded election warriors.

"In the last legislative elections there were candidates put in hospital because they had psychiatric disorders or depression after they failed to get elected," said Dadi hospital director Arman Bausat.