Aseanews Headline: RANGON, Myanmar- Voters had little awareness of by-elections: observers
A woman from Tarmwe township in Yangon casting her vote during Saturday’s by-election. Nyan Zay Htet/The Myanmar Times
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Voters, especially in rural areas, had a low level of awareness about the recently concluded by-elections the Asian Network for Free Elections (ANFREL), an international election-watch group, said yesterday.
ANFREL noted during a press briefing in Yangon that in many cases voters learned about the the by-election from the candidates who would come to campaign in rural areas. It also said there was little coverage about the by-election in the national media.
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Because of lack information about the campaigns and backgrounds of the candidates, voters could not make an informed decision on who to vote for, said Mr Damaso G. Magbual, head of mission of ANFREL.
He added voter turnout was much lower than in previous elections.
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“We have to consider why voters didn’t come out to cast their ballot. It is possible that they were not interested in the elections.
“There may be many reasons behind it. The voter might not be informed as there was not enough voter education efforts. We should be looking for the main reason,” Magbual said.
While there were a lot of efforts to educate voters conducted by civil-society groups and the media during the 2015 and 2017 elections, very little was done in the November 3 electoral exercise, ANFREL said in its interim report on the by-elections.
“The Union Election Commission (UEC) should not be the sole provider of voter education as the media, civil-society organisations, religious leaders and the community at large also should take their part of the responsibilities to ensure a thriving democratic environment,” it said.
ANFREL observers also visited a military polling station and noted poor quality of the crowd management and cluttered queues as well as an insufficient number of booths for the huge number of voters, causing polling irregularities.
ANFREL monitored the by-elections during the campaign period and conducted in-depth interviews with key electoral stakeholders and random sampling of polling stations across all 13 constituencies.
/ 06 NOV 2018
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