MUP questions some electoral results: Township Election Sub-commission refuse to provide information

November 21, 2020

HURFOM: The Mon Unity Party (MUP) is expressing concerns with the electoral results in some constituencies in Mon State. In an effort to investigate they requested specific information from a select number of Township Election Sub-commissions, but their requests have been denied.

“The Commissions must give Form #1 to every candidate who contested the election. But now they gave nothing. Even when we, the political party, have requested this information. So we’re having doubts [about election integrity],” said the Joint Secretary of the MUP Election Campaign Committee.

The MUP is questioning if there were election irregularities in constituencies in Thanbyuzayat, Kyaikmayaw and Paung Townships. They requested the required Form #1, the eligible voter list, Form #16 and the voting results from each polling station, Form #18 for the advance vote list, as well as Form #19 for the final result of the election but the sub-commissions. All of their requests have been refused..

“If an election candidate makes a request, the Commission must give every form. That’s the procedure. Now there was no transparency about the voting result. If the township sub-commissions haven’t given us the forms, we’ll make the request at the upper levels,” said Joint Secretary Nai Than Shwe.

Thanbyuzayat Township has four parliamentary seats and the MUP won only one seat for the Mon State Parliament. Kyaikmayaw Township also has four parliamentary seats, and the MUP won only one seat for the Mon State Parliament. The ruling National League for Democracy (NLD) won all parliamentary seats in Paung Township.

“On November 11, we went to the township Sub-Commission to request Form #16. But they replied that we must go to the village Sub-Commissions to collect the forms. Kyaikmayaw has about 90 polling stations so we have no time to do that. I also contested the election in 2015 and the 2015 township Sub-Commission gave me both Form #16 and #19. This year, they gave us nothing even though we requested them,” said Mi Jondel Non, a MUP candidate.

Nai Than Shwe added, “Only after an investigation, can we say if we will file a charge (against the election Sub-Commissions) or not. Now, we’re just trying to get electoral forms. We’ve also asked our township committees to report on any electoral fraud in their townships but nothing has been received yet.”.

Written by Modinator · Filed Under News