Indonesia saw another daily high for new COVID-19 infections on Monday, with the 4,176 new cases recorded adding urgency to calls to postpone the elections to prevent the virus from spreading further among the population.

The two largest grassroots Islamic organizations in the country, Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) and Muhammadiyah, are among the latest civil society groups to call for a delay to the simultaneous elections, in order to minimize the risk of coronavirus transmission.

The two groups expressed concerns that the election process, particularly campaigning, would inevitably involve a large number of people and would therefore pose a greater risk of COVID-19 transmission around the country.

“At every stage of organizing the election, even with stricter health protocols, it is difficult to prevent concentrations of people in large numbers,” said NU chairman Said Aqil Siradj and secretary general Helmy Faishal Zaini in a statement.

They also asked the government to divert funds allocated for the elections to be used instead to contain the spread of COVID-19.

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