Over 10,000 Kayin voters to be excluded from election
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Polling booths would be established at only 102 villages in Kayin State, Myanmar due to security threats, said the chairman of the Kayin State Election Commission.
Under this decision, voters in the remaining 41 villages would be unable to cast their votes in the November 8 election.
“Elections will not held in 41 villages in Kyainseikyi Township because there are some multiple armed groups there,” said Kyaw Win Maung.
Affected are the six villages in Hpa-An, eight villages in Hlaingbwe, nine villages in Thantaung, seven villages in Kawkayaik, six villages in Myawady and 25 villages in Hpapon.
“There could be more than 10,000 voters who will be unable to vote in this election, according to our estimates. Due to the lack of rule of law in those areas, we cannot collect accurate data for voter lists. Another reason is security,” the chairman explained.
Kyaw Win Maung made the announcement after discussion with political parties and reporting to the Union Election Commission. He said that the decision is final given that the UEC did not oppose to the local election unit’s proposal.
In the 2015 general election, Kayin State has 36 constituencies, seven Lower House seats, 12 Upper House seats, 14 state parliament seats and three seats for ethnic minorities.
Several areas in Myanmar have suffered from sporadic clashes between the Myanmar army and ethnic armed groups.
The national ceasefire agreement is not yet signed. The leaders of ethnic armed groups convened in Chiang Mai, Thailand, on September 28 to further discuss on the signing.
