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U Tin Aye and Voter Lists; Let's Solely Tell About This to President Writer: Nay Htun Naing

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U Tin Aye and Voter Lists; Let's Solely Tell About This to President Writer: Nay Htun Naing EPRP www.eprpinformation.org – DVD - Opinion Section 1 http://elevenmyanmar.com/opinion/u-tin-aye-and-voter-lists-lets-solely-tell-about- president U Tin Aye and voter lists; let's solely tell about this to President Writer: Nay Htun Naing U Tin Aye and President U Thein Sein seen together at the meeting with political parties on May 18, 2015. (Photo-EMG) The National Unity Party (NUP) has called on the Union Election Commission (UEC) to ensure that the 2015 general election is not dishonorable like the 2010 election. Myanmar had bitter experiences of advance voting in the 1990 and 2010 elections, the NUP pointed out. The request was made by U Han Shwe, CEC member of NUP during its press conference held on September 24. He said the upcoming election needed to be free, fair and honourable. The honourable election means that it must be in line with the international norms and standards and acceptable by the international community. He also stressed the need to ensure the election completes peacefully and successfully. On September 24 also, U Tin Oo, patron of the National League for Democracy (NLD), questioned if they were trying to win the election through invalid votes based on incorrect voter lists. He raised the question during a public speech in Thayet Township, Magway Region. EPRP www.eprpinformation.org – DVD - Opinion Section 2 http://elevenmyanmar.com/opinion/u-tin-aye-and-voter-lists-lets-solely-tell-about- president "Previously, they won the elections with advance voting. Now again, what will they do? Will they try to win it with invalid votes? I want to question whether they are attempting so asked U Tin Oo. Speaking about election, voter lists, Election Day and election results are all important. Even in the pre-election period, voter list problems are having an impact on the political parties and voters. Particularly, there is growing concern about election losses before competition comes. Meanwhile, UEC chairman U Tin Aye is acting irresponsibly and rebutting criticisms over severely incorrect voter lists. (2) U Tin Aye said he could guarantee that only 30 percent of basic voter lists were correct. It means that he will guarantee only 9.6 million out of 32 million eligible voters are on the voter lists. The remaining 20 million people will not have a chance to vote. This is an irresponsible act of a chairman of the country's election commission. Again, U Tin Aye tried to say that the reason why he guarantees only 30 percent is that only those 30 percent people came to have their voter lists amended. He has acted irresponsibly by saying that his election commission is not responsible for incorrect voter lists and it is the responsibility of the voters themselves. In an interview featured in the September 24 issue of 7 Day Journal, U Tin Aye said: "…it is wrong to say that the commission is responsible for this. There is no such responsibility in the world either." He also quoted some words of Larry Jagan, an expert on Myanmar's affairs, to confirm what he has said is right. "You ask Larry Jagan. I have asked him. When asked who is the most responsible in the international arena also for ensuring that voters are on the lists to cast votes, he said the commission has no responsibility. It is the right of voters. It is the voters who have to ensure that they are on the lists," said U Tin Aye. When I asked Larry Jagan if he really said so by email, he said it was not exactly what he had said. "But it is not exactly what I said; it was the onus to check the data, and that the data was submitted by the voters first to the local authorities. The government sends voter registration cards when the list is finalised. The mess with the voter list is more complicated. That is down to the UEC. Where the first data came from, why the EPRP www.eprpinformation.org – DVD - Opinion Section 3 http://elevenmyanmar.com/opinion/u-tin-aye-and-voter-lists-lets-solely-tell-about- president changes weren't made, what happened to their computer system. The one thing I also said was I didn't think they could do everything in time (and that was in June) ," said Larry Jagan in his email reply. They admitted that the voter lists are filled with mistakes. But there are three points U Tin Aye and some commission members pointed out in an irresponsible manner. Firstly, they blame those voters for their failure to check the voter lists. Then they blame the incorrect procedures of regional election sub-commissions. Now, the UEC is sending frequent SMS warnings to mobile phone users to come and check the voter lists by spending a lot of money. We can say this is a good thing. But psychologically, they are trying to convince the voters that it is not the commission's responsibility to see mistakes in the voter lists and shortcomings in election. The second point is that voters came and checked the voter lists and had them corrected. Some election sub-commissions also carried out their procedures correctly. But when the lists came out, the voter lists were incorrect again. They said it was due to print errors. Thirdly, U Tin Aye himself said incorrect voter lists were due to a software programme. "As we are technologically weak, we hired a company to compile voter lists. We even wanted to check our voter lists online. We did not use the old software and changed a new one. Then that happened so. I even did not know that the software had been changed," he said during a seminar on election and code of conduct held on September 25. Actually, the UEC has been cooperating with the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) formed with international experts since 2012. Now, IFES has refused to meet the media and that casts doubts. Moreover, the reason why the voter lists are filled with mistakes is food for thought. (3) U Tin Aye will have to take responsibility for correcting the voter lists. He cannot guarantee 30 percent only. He must make sure that at least 90 percent is correct. Only if he responsibly guarantee 90 percent correct, can we expect the possibility of a free and fair election. The 1990 election was simple. The voters did not need to go and check their voter lists. They just went to polling stations on the Election Day. There were over 20 million eligible voters in the 1990 election. Out of them, more than 15 million people (72.59 EPRP www.eprpinformation.org – DVD - Opinion Section 4 http://elevenmyanmar.com/opinion/u-tin-aye-and-voter-lists-lets-solely-tell-about- president percent) went to polling stations to vote. The number of invalid votes, lost votes and overlapping votes was just 12.3 percent. In the 2010 election, there were 27.29 million eligible voters. What was strange was that over 29 million voters were set to vote for the lower house of parliament; over 28 million voters for the upper house; and 27.76 million voters for state and region parliaments. It was awful to see such differences. More people were on the voter lists. When the election took place, more than 22.7 million people voted for the lower house, accounting for 77.69 percent of all the voters. The number of invalid and lost votes was 6.9 percent. Over 21.68 million people voted for the upper house, accounting for 76.4 percent. The number of invalid and lost votes was 6.3 percent. More than 20.81 million people voted for regional parliaments, accounting for 74.99 percent. The number of invalid and lost votes was 7.2 percent. In the 2010 election, the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) got over 13.28 million votes for the lower house. The votes on Election Day were over 9.7 million and advance votes over 3.5 million. The party won the election only with 43.04 percent of all the voters but it tried to get 58.41 percent advance votes. Similarly, USDP got over 16.26 million voters for the upper house, accounting for about 75 percent of all the voters. But it won more than 2.7 million advance votes that totaled over 18.9 million votes, accounting for 87.62 per cent of all the voters. Over 4.6 million people voted in the 2012 by-election. However, only 2.8 million went to polling stations to vote. It accounted for 61.44 percent of all the voters. There were 3.6 percent advance votes and the number of invalid and lost votes was 9.11 percent. For the upper house, over 1.4 million people voted. Nearly 940,000 people went to polling stations, accounting for 62.65 percent of all the voters. The number of invalid and lost votes was 9.11 percent and that of advance votes 3.6 percent. There were 130,000 people voted for regional parliaments but only 70,000 went to polling booths, accounting for 56.26 percent. There were 3.7 percent advance votes and 10.91 percent invalid and lost votes. Those figures were calculated based on all data available. Apart from the 2012 by- election, the average 75 per cent of the eligible voters went to the polls in general elections held in 1990 and 2010. EPRP www.eprpinformation.org – DVD - Opinion Section 5 http://elevenmyanmar.com/opinion/u-tin-aye-and-voter-lists-lets-solely-tell-about- president Thus, the estimated 65 per cent to 75 per cent of the electorate will be voting in coming election.
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