Mai Kaung Saing — After forming a partnership, the Ta’ang Students and Youth Union (TSYU) and the Ta’ang Women’s Organization (TWO) have been giving electoral education talks in ten townships in northern Shan State, where the majority of Ta’ang people reside. The workshops began earlier this month.
According to the TSYU, workshops have been conducted in towns and villages in Namhsan, Mantong, Namtu, Namhkam, Kutkai, Muse, Kyaukme, Hsipaw, Mogok, Mongmit, and Tangyan townships to raise public awareness about the voting process.
TSYU’s joint secretary (1) Lway Ei Kham Lin explained what this entailed. “We are giving [the electoral educational talks] in these ten townships because many Ta’ang people live in these townships so we planned the project to give electoral education with the focus on our Ta’ang people. The Ta’ang people also live in other towns, but these ten townships have the highest percentage [in population],”she said.
She explained that the electoral education program is being given in order to help avoid people having spoiled ballots in the the upcoming election. There were reports of spoiled ballots during the previous 2010 Election. The talks are also being held to raise awareness amongst the Ta’ang people about the the voting process.
“We have demonstrated how to vote at the polling stations in order to reduce the number of spoiled votes. The vote samples we have used don’t contain any party logos. We only used pictures of fruit and vegetables as a sample,” said Lway Ei Kham Lin.
The two organizations are facing many challenges in giving the electoral education workshops including a general lack of funds. The workshops were originally supposed to begin in June but had to be delayed because of bad roads and ongoing clashes in northern Shan State.
