USDP complains of ID problems in the Myanmar general election

USDP complains of ID problems in the Myanmar general election
Voters cast their ballots in Dagon Township, Yangon in November 8, 2020. Photo: Thura/Mizzima

The Union Development and Solidarity Party (USDP) claims there were a number of problems with ID cards when it came for people to vote in the recent 8 November Myanmar general election.

The USDP says they checked over one million eligible voters listed in ten townships of Yangon Region electoral roll and found that over 100,000 voters had problems of identical number of their national ID in ID of another person, some did not have this ID, some lost the ID and some were still making this ID at the immigration office when voting took place.

USDP Yangon Region branch secretary Kyaw Soe told Mizzima that the Yangon Region electoral roll was bloated with identical ID numbers and many did not have this ID required for voting.

“Our party has Election Commission Form (1) in our possession. This Form (1) was issued by the election commission. We checked this form. Election commission said that the voters must produce an ID for voting at polling station but on the polling date many voters had to cast their votes by producing a voter slip. Many voters did not have this required ID and many had an identical number of the ID with another person or duplicate IDs with different photos and names. So the electoral roll in our Region is bloated,” he said.

USDP Vice-Chairman Khin Yi claimed that there were double voting, voting in the name of deceased persons and many other electoral malpractices on polling day. So the party registered 126 cases at police stations and 1,042 complaints were lodged at Union Election Commission (UEC).

At the press conference held by USDP and partner parties on November 26 in Yangon, USDP Vice-Chairman Khin Yi said, “We did not know how many people cast their votes on polling date. The commission did not give this document to us. And also they (Commission) did not give the electoral roll when it was announced for the first time. And also we were not allowed to check the electoral roll when it was announced for the second time. So we could not know how many people came and cast their votes. We did not know how many people were added in the electoral rolls. So we could not check if any ineligible voters were listed in these electoral rolls and if any deceased persons were still in the electoral rolls.”

He said that on the polling day, some cast the votes in the name of deceased persons, some voted twice and some voters were not the familiar faces to the local people and some were never seen by these local people.

Khin Yi said his party registered 126 cases at police stations and 1,042 cases were lodged at theUEC, noting that he thought parties will have similar complaints and cases.