Soe Htike Aung
The voter lists posted in the village tracts described incorrect names and registration numbers, as well as unlisted voters. In that case, they requested the permission to Election Commission for correcting those errors door-to-door. But it was not approved, said Khun Be Htoo, chairman of the Kayan National Party.
“In some polling stations where we are trying to contest, there are only about 500 polling stations. There are about 20 people with errors. On average, it has a large percentage. So there are some things which are wrong. Some of the names are misspelling. Thus, we would like to help fixing it. The first one is we asked the commission to give us the voter list and then we will go door-to-door for checking and correcting the list, but the commission did not give us the voter list, said Ko Bi Htoo.
When we contacted the State Election Commission on phone,
“Voter lists are already attached now. It is still on the process. We haven’t done the editing and revision yet. Prepare “Once the editing and revision have been made, we will deliver to the parties after the Union Election Commission command us,” said an official from the State Election Commission.
When we (Kantarawaddy Times) contacted to some village tracts in the state about the incorrect voter list, there were about 20 unlisted residents in the Southern Ward of Mese Township, 14 residents in Chikwet Section, Bawlekhae Township, 120 residents of Acre-500 zone, Loikaw Township, and 19 residents of San Pya – 6 Mile, Deemawso Township. Besides, there are also over 100 residents of Daw Ta Wi Village, Deemawso Township, which are required to revise.
The names of people wrongly described on the voter list are now being corrected by checking and matching with the copies of their ID cards, said U The Reh, Chairman of the Htee Phoe Kalo Village-tract.
“Currently, we have a commission office in our village-tract office. Then the voter lists are being posted in each of the villages. The people with wrong information comes to the village-tract commission office and inform us. We are still working on it, along with the names of the people which are wrong, and we check back with the copies of the ID cards by using the submission form and correct those mistakes,” said U The Reh, chairman of the Htee Phoe Kalo Village-tract, Deemawso Township.
U Sai Maung Maung Htwe, a member of the Kayah State Democratic Party, said the released voter list just based on the 2015 census although the village administrators gave the updated census list to Election Commission.
“So it significantly shows that they are not doing a detailed review,” said U Sai Maung Maung Htwe.
Khun Bi Htoo, Chairman of the Kayan National Party “We are watching on it because even a single vote can make a change. We are interested where these people are going to vote and how these people are going to vote. The citizens should not lose their right to vote. We can also guarantee on it. All citizens including those who are working abroad deserve the right to vote. However, the right to vote should be accomplished transparently.
In that case, we keep talking to the commission about this issue,” he said.
In the 2015 general election, there are 178,316 eligible voters in Kayah State, and in the next multi-party democratic general election in 2020, there will be 204,677 according to the release of first voter list.