Previous Union Election Commission was formed with NLD hard cores in November 2017 to commit voting frauds in ward and village polling stations: UEC Chairman

A plan is underway to amend the law and rules for casting votes of voters who reside outside the constituency for more than 90 days, and township election sub-commissions will collect the number of eligible voters holding citizenship scrutiny cards from Form-66 of the immigration department checked with the list from the General Administration Department, said Union Election Commission Chairman U Thein Soe in meeting with 59 political parties at the office of the UEC in Nay Pyi Taw yesterday morning.
The chairman invited political parties to give helping hands to the commission in collecting voter lists, casting votes under the law, and providing necessary suggestions.
The commission has inspected voter lists from 306 of 315 townships, and the remaining nine townships are under examination. The findings from the lists have been presented through daily newspapers.
The immigration department showed 4,188,249 voters holding IDs cast votes, but there were 6,137,047 eligible voters in the Yangon Region. There were 3,979,695 voters holding various ID. Among them, 747,138 voters did not have citizenship scrutiny cards, 280,482 voters with CSC repeated in the voter list twice and thrice. So, voting fraud may be based on 1,027,620 voters.
Likewise, there were 212,916 people included on the voter list in Kayah State, 214,074 of whom held various IDs mentioned by the immigration department. A total of 162,857 voters cast votes, 5,552 of whom cast votes without CSC and 930 voters were included on the repeated lists for three and above times and 16,680 for two times.
There were 477,957 eligible voters in Rakhine State, 630,052, who held various IDs mentioned by the immigration department. A total of 329,264 persons cast votes, 77,573 cast votes without CSC, but 4,101 persons were repeatedly involved on the list more than three times and 47,712 twice.
There were 1,847,780 voters in Mon State, 1,602,960 of whom held various kinds of IDs mentioned by the immigration department. A total of 305,987 voters cast votes without CSC, but 13,002 voters were involved on the voter list more than three times and 174,268 twice.
As an announcement was issued that more than 60 years old voters might cast votes in advance as of 29 October 2020, votes were collected. In some areas, members of NLD victorious teams gathered advance votes from the voters.
According to the health guidelines based on the outbreak of Covid-19, one more announcement was released on 8 October 2020 that those who could not return home might cast votes. So, it caused repeated voter lists and allowed the voters without citizenship scrutiny cards to cast votes. The previous UEC released a directive on 19 October 2020 for those without CSC to cast votes. So, those without CSC were allowed to cast votes. Moreover, a directive was released to count for ballots with the right mark but without the seal of the commission, ballots with the right mark and ballots in the torn envelopes as confirmed votes. These acts broke relevant election law and rules.
The previous Union Election Commission was formed with NLD hard cores in November 2017 to commit voting frauds in the ward and village polling stations. Region/State, district and township election sub-commissions were also re-constituted with NLD hard cores. Moreover, the General Administration Department was moved under the Government Office Ministry. The President formed immigration and human resources ministries in regions and states on 27 June 2019.
It can be vividly seen that attempts were made to enable a single party to win in the election to form the government. Newspapers proved the interference of the Union government and authorities. IDEA and IFES intentionally opened their offices at the UEC office to seek the funds from foreign organizations under the title of election and advised the commission. When inspection of the voter list is completed soon, necessary measures will be taken, and the report on findings will be presented to the people.
The voter lists and voting frauds were inspected after the 2020 election held by the previous UEC. Political parties which participated in the election experienced the illegal performance of the ruling party. So, those parties were requested to send the voting frauds, illegal commitments and evidence they faced to the current commission. The wish of the parties was sought for taking action against NLD, which broke the law in the 2020 election based on the findings of the voter lists.
The first meeting focused on the practice of the PR system. Some parties sent the papers to the election commission. So, political parties were urged to discuss whether the PR system should be exercised or not. Among them, the commission will select the appropriate election system depending on the situation. The forthcoming election will be held in a free and fair manner in line with the fifth point of the five-point road map by taking lessons from the past wrong events.
Political parties discussed matters pertaining to the assistance of the commission in the rule of law and security measures, change of election system, taking care for using the system for ensuring the new election commission in conformity with Myanmar, taking legal action against the party which broke the existing laws and committed voting frauds, and the Proportional Representation (PR) system.
The UEC chairman responded to the discussions of the political parties. — MNA