MUP urges migrant workers to vote in advance in their home constituency

June 11, 2020

HURFOM: During a meeting with local media, Nai Layi Tama, the Secretary #1 of the Mon Unity Party (MUP) urged migrant workers across Burma to vote for candidates in their native or home constituency, via advanced voting for the 2020 general election.

“It’s not reasonable that migrant workers in the ethnic regions vote for candidates where they temporarily work. They should vote for candidates in their native constituency via advanced votes,” said the Secretary #1.

In 2015, the electoral law said that migrant workers could cast their vote in the jurisdiction where they temporarily worked if they had been a resident of that jurisdiction for at least 6 months or 180 days. An amendment to the electoral law was made in 2020, allowing migrant workers voting rights in their workplace jurisdictions with only 3 months or 90 days residency.

There has been a criticism surrounding the voting rights and residency requirements of migrant workers.

“The MUP and the other ethnic political parties sent letters to the Union Election Commission (UEC) [voicing their opposition] to this issue. And we also sent letters to particular parliaments. But the amendment was approved even though we all opposed it. That’s unreasonable,” said Nai Layi Tama.

According to the 2014 census, there were 350,000 migrant workers in Mon State. The State government provided household lists and national registration cards (NRC) so migrant workers had the right to cast their vote in Mon State, in the 2015 election.

Despite the constraints associated with COVID-19, the Union Election Commision (UEC) has not announced any plans to postpone the general election, which will take place in November.

There were more than a million voters in Mon State in the 2010 election, and 1.5 millions in the 2015 election. The Mon State Election Sub-commission has reported there are 1.7 million eligible voters for the upcoming 2020 election.

Written by Modinator · Filed Under News