Even though list of military personnel eligible to vote has not yet been compiled for the upcoming 2020 election, already there are more than 1.7 million registered voters in Mon State, according to U Hein Lin Htet, the Secretary of the Mon State Election Sub-commission.
“According to the last update we have reported to the election commission by January 2020, there were 17,053,000 eligible voters all over Mon State. [The Union Election Commission] commanded us to stop collecting the voter list at the moment and to only proceed under the [UEC] instruction,” said U Hein Lin Htet
Under the instruction of the Union Election Commission, the voting list of military personnel and their family members has not yet been collected. U Hein Lin Htet continued that “the update is to ensure the accuracy of the voter lists, but the accuracy alone is not enough. We are working with respective townships to ensure that it is valid. It is also included in the rule of law, and when the voter list is posted, it should be the correct percentage of people who come to vote.”
In the 2015 election, there were 919 polling stations in Mon state and 49 polling stations were in the military cantonments with only 1,510,000 registered voters. In the 2010 election, there were 1,010,000 eligible voters.
A member of the Union Election Commission U Myint Naing told media that polling stations from the outside of military compounds to be built near the main gate of the compounds in the 2020 general election.
“The polling station for [the military personnel and family members] will be located not far away from the compounds. It will be at the entrance. The representative of a polling station and monitoring groups must have access to every polling station so that our five [election] standards will be balanced. They can come in to check freely. To do so, we will coordinate with the military commanders there how to implement it. There will be family members living with military personnel,” said U Myint Naing.
According to the Union Election Commission, there are more than 37 million people who are eligible to vote for the 2020 general election, and the current voter list does not yet include military personnel and their family members.
The Union Election Commission closed the application for Party registration on January 1st. Currently, there are 95 registered political parties, three parties have been temporarily suspended, three are in the process of party formation and another five are in the process of registration.
