The Mon Unity Party (MUP) is calling for the election commission to collect the names of eligible voters for the 2020 national election, at the ward and villages level, at least three times, to ensure accuracy and full representation of all voters.

“The voters list gathering should not be done just one time because there must be people who are away from homes like traveling or working in plantations/farms. To get the complete list, the election commission [in the area] should make a prior announcement before implementing and the process of voters list conducting should be done three times,” said Nai Lyae Tamae, the MUP’s Joint Secretary-1.

Although the enumeration (collection) of the voter list has been conducted by the General Administrative Department in Thanphyuzayat, no enumeration of eligible voters has been done in Pa-Nga, a village of 4000 households, according to local residents.

“For the public, it is important to add every family member who is 18-year-old [to the] voting list. Whether they are working abroad or staying home, they should be added to the list if they are 18 years old,” added Nai Lyae Tamae.

The Union Election Commission decision from 2018 (meeting no.36/2018), states that everyone who is 18 years old by December 31 in 2020 is eligible to cast their votes, and the respective election commissions have been instructed to ensure all eligible voters are added to the voting list.

There has been a steady increase in the number of registered voters. In the 2015 general election, there were over 1,510,000 registered voters, while there were only over 1,060,000 registered voters in the 2010 election.

According to a report on the progress of compiling the 2020 voters list, U Hein Lin, Secretary of the Mon State Election Sub-commission told media reporters that over 1,720,000 eligible voters were enumerated by the end of September of this year. He added the data of military personnel and their family members remains has not yet been added to the voting list.

According to the Mon State election sub-commission, over 48 million kyat (budget) has been allocated to compile the State’s voter list for the 2020 election.