Mon State Election Sub-commission needs Union Commission approval to collect list of military voters

October 22, 2019

HURFOM: As of the first week of October, 2019, more than 1.7 million people have been added to the 2020 general election voter list in Mon State. Now the Mon State Election Sub-commission is awaiting approval from the Union Election Commission to start the collection of military voters’ to the list.

“We can collect the list of soldiers and their household members only after we [have] received instructions from the Union Election Commission. Now we [have collected the non-military voters names across Mon State] but can’t collect the list of military voters. The whole country is like that (can’t collect list of military voters). We need instructions from the Union Election Commission to list military voters,” said U Hein Lin Htet, the Deputy Director of Mon State Election Sub-commission.

The background to this process situation is linked to election laws and the desire for free and fair elections.

According to election laws, the voter lists of soldiers and their household members must be present at the polling stations in the wards nearby particular military commands. However, election laws do not state polling stations could be on military bases.

In the 2015 general election, there was an attempted negotiation to remove polling stations from military bases, but no agreement was reached. As a result a non-military eligible voters lists is compiled first, and then military voters are added to that list.

U Hein Lin Htet explained that during the 2015 election, monitoring groups, election candidates and media groups could freely monitor polling stations on military bases like they did at stations in civilian awards. Further that most military polling stations were located at government schools and common halls on military bases.

However, the Central Executive Committee of the National League for Democracy (NLD) opposed placing polling stations being set up on military bases as well as advance voting by military voters, reported U Ngwe Myint, the Secretary of the Mon State NLD Office.

U Myint Naing, Spokesperson from the Union Election Commission (UEC), noted that placing polling stations on military bases remains a controversial issue, and the (UEC) still needs to have a discussion with military officials about the matter.

“In the recent central committee meeting, we decided to submit a report to the Union Election Commission [urging them] not to place polling stations in military bases. Voting in military bases isn’t free and fair,” said U Ngwe Myint of the NLD.

In the 2015 general election, there were 919 polling stations in Mon State and 49 were military polling stations, according to the Mon State Election Sub-commission.

Written by Modinator · Filed Under News