11 February 2015 – Karenni village election commissions have started collecting lists of voters in preparation for the forthcoming 2015 general election according to U Kyaw San Win, a Karenni State Election Commission officer.
He said that voter lists will be drawn up according to election bylaw and will list people who will be 18 years old by 30 November 2015.
By collating the voter list in advance it will be possible to hold the elections in November, as the authorities want, without any postponements, he continued.
He said: “We will be ready after we have collected this list. Then, when the election date is announced we can announce who is eligible to vote.
The list and collected information will be input into electoral roll computers with the help of the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) during February.
The 300 electoral roll computers will be used in turn by different regions of the country. Karenni State will be able to use them from February to April.
U Kyaw San Win said staff will be offered training on how to use the computers.
U Myo Thant, secretary of Loikaw Township Election Commission said that they have been collecting voter lists in some wards of Loikaw Town since October 2014.
He said: “We have already finished in small wards but they have not submitted [the results] yet. We have not finished [collecting the information] from more populated wards yet.”
According to the State Administration’s surveyed list made in December 2014 there are 257,854 people living in Karenni State. Of those, 75,461 are males aged 18 and over and 78,462 are females aged 18 and over meaning that according to those figures 153,923 people may be eligible to vote.
According to an announcement by the Union Election Commission the general elections will be held at the end of October or the beginning of November 2015.
Translated by Aung Myat Soe English version written by Mark Inkey for BNI
