Election ballots and boxes carried across Indonesia by motorcycle, boat, horse and on foot

Iconic white ballot boxes and ballots to let the nearly 205 million eligible voters of Indonesia choose candidates in this Wednesday’s election have been carried across the world’s largest archipelago by motorcycle, boat and even horse — as well as on foot.

The journey can be tough.

The boxes and ballots must sometimes be hand-carried up mountains, across rivers and through villages in the forest to reach a population that is spread out across over 17,000 islands that stretch over 5,000 kilometers (3,000 miles) from east to west.

A huge number of boxes and ballots is required for the vote in the world’s third largest democracy.

Once entering a voting booth, a voter must deal with five ballots at once, choosing one of three pairs of presidential and vice presidential hopefuls, as well as candidates at the national, provincial, regional and city levels.

The official vote-counting process is laborious, and may take up to 35 days. But the public can expect numerous early vote count results based on sampling, as registered private polling and survey groups will deploy thousands of volunteers and staff to polling stations nationwide.