As a result of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the government in Indonesia has announced its decision to delay its simultaneous regional elections originally scheduled for the 23rd of September. The country has chosen to go with a yet-to-be-announced date in December that will ensure the safety of its more than 100 million voters.

President Joko Widodo who signed a Government Regulation in Lieu of Law on Monday made the government’s decision known. The bill which was published late Tuesday regulates the postponement of this year’s election from its original September date to December or even longer depending on how the situation with the coronavirus pandemic plays out in the world’s fourth most populous nation. The elections were set to hold simultaneously in 270 regions across the archipelago nation to elect 9 governors, 37 mayors, and 224 district chiefs, with registered voters reaching 105 million.

The regulation became a necessary cause of action after the country’s General Election Commission decided to postpone its preparation stage of the regional elections at the end of March after several election organizers got infected with the coronavirus disease, making the election preparation process more tedious than it’s supposed to be, and a health risk to the Commission’s staff.

”Postponing this year’s regional elections was the most viable option to avoid COVID-19 from further spreading to rural areas,” the head of the commission, Arif Budiman, said in a statement.

Indonesia, home to nearly 270 million, has recorded a total of 12,071 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 872 fatalities as of Tuesday. While countries like Serbia, Poland, South Korea, and Poland have decided to push forward with their elections despite the growing pandemic, Indonesia joins countries like Ethiopia, the Dominican Republic, the United Kingdom and France, that have postponed or put an indefinite hold on their previously set elections.