Ex-leader Than Shwe votes in Nay Pyi Taw
Former Myanmar leader Senior General Than Shwe and his wife cast their votes in Nay Pyi Taw's Pobbathiri Township on Saturday. Also voting on the day were a team of 10 former senior leaders including Deputy Senior General Maung Aye, Thiha Thura Tin Aung
The votes were collected from their houses.
A few days before the election, National League for Democracy Lower House candidate Yee Mon for the constituency said the final voter list for the township included more than 10,000 extra names.
The revised voter list had over 59,000 voters, but the final roll had nearly 73,000 voters. She said the commission could not provide the addresses of the extra voters.
The added names are reportedly from new wards with few residents and thousands of empty homes.
The township’s 2012 voter list included about 54,000 names.
Change of heart
On the eve of voting day, the Union Election Commission (UEC) announced that all types of media were allowed to take photos inside polling stations.
This followed the government's decision a day earlier to allow state-owned media inside booths. The UEC earlier barred all from taking photos inside the booths.
International observers
There were 1,118 international observers at the election yesterday, including 470 from 32 embassies, 465 from six election-monitoring groups and 183 from organisations promoting democratic and electoral processes.
According to the Union Election Commission, there were 9,406 observers from 13 domestic monitoring groups and 291 from 45 foreign media organisations.
There were more than 40,000 polling booths nationwide.
SNLD complaint
The Shan Nationalities League for Democracy (SNLD) says advance ballots did not show its logo.
SNLD candidate Sai Tun Hla said some ballot papers excluded another SNLD candidate, Sai Tun Aung, and the party logo during advance voting.
Competing in Mongpan Township are also the Shan National Democratic Party, the National League for Democracy and the ruling party.
Ballot boxes ‘kept at administrator’s house’
Aye Mya Mya Myo, the National League for Democracy’s Lower House candidate for Kyauktan Township, Yangon Region, complained that the ward administrator of Shwepyitha kept advance ballot boxes at his house.
She claimed that the authorities said the boxes were kept at the house for security reasons.
There are more than 126,000 voters in the township.
Ethnic parties happy to work with NLD
The Shan National League for Democracy and Arakan National Party said they would cooperate with Aung |San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy after the election to work for “democratisation and federalisation” of the country.
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