Khine Nwe Oo — Advanced voting has been temporary halted in Tanintharyi Region’s Kawthoung Township due to a belief that the township was not ready to accept advanced votes in a manner that is free and fair, according to candidates. This has been disputed by Kawthoung Township Election Sub-commission officials, who say that advanced voting is currently taking place at ward/village-level sub-commission offices across the township.
“The wards and villages are not ready to collect advanced votes. It’s better to postpone it. We don’t know when it will be opened again,” said U Zaw Min Htike, an independent candidate running in Kawthoung Township.
Advanced voting in Kawthoung Township started on October 29, but was soon halted due to the leaking of the ink that voters are meant to use to stamp their ballots. Advanced voting resumed with voters being given ballpoint pens to mark their ballots, but some candidates thought that this method was susceptible to fraud with so the advanced voting was halted again.
Concern about fraud had been raised even before the advanced voting process began. Some candidates in Kawthoung Township made a request to the Election Commission to increase the security of the ballot boxes designated to be used for advanced voting. Election Commission staff responded that the ballot boxes were secure because they were taped on all sides.
Kawthoung Township candidates are now expressing concerns that there will be further problems on election day in light of the many problems experienced so far during the advanced voting process.
“When people voted in Payetkwa Village, they were asked to mark their ballots with a pen. This is not allowed in this election. When the voters complained that marking ballots with a pen was against the election rules, the voting was halted,” said U Naing Maung Aye from the Mon National Party, who is running for a seat in the Upper House in Kawthoung constituency.
When BNI Election Newsroom contacted a Kawthoung Township Election Commission office about the postponement of advanced voting, it was stated that advanced voting has not been halted and is on-going in ward/village commission offices.
Kawthoung Township Election Sub-commission Secretary U Kyaw Phone Maung said “[advanced votes] can be given at one of the 27 ward/village sub-commission offices. Regarding the issue of marking ballots with a ballpoint pen: eight ballots have been marked with ball pen due to the misunderstanding of the voters themselves. We have submitted this information to the Union [Election Commission]. We don’t open and shut the polling station for advanced voting.”
On the 8 November election day, voting will be allowed in all 10 of Tanintharyi Region’s townships. There are 982,965 eligible voters in 340 wards/villages and 1,170 polling stations will be opened, meaning that each polling station will be required to accommodate approximately 840 people.
