UEC turns down demands on copying electoral documents
7 December 2020
1. For the multiparty democracy general elections held on 8 November 2020, the Union Election Commission (UEC) announced the eligible voter lists twice: from 25-7-2020 to 14-8-2020, and from 1-10-2020 to 14-10-2020. All eligible voter lists for Regions/States have also been published online for review.
2. The Union Election Commission (UEC) has issued letter-number 4/Ya Ka Pa (255)/KaMaYa dated 30-9-2020, in order to provide eligible voter lists to political parties and Hluttaw candidates in Soft Copy CD (PDF Format). The UEC addressed the letter to the Region/State Election Sub-commissions, and copies of the letter were also sent to all political parties.
3. Township Election sub-Commissions let all the Hluttaw candidates who wanted to get the lists to copy the lists free of charge under section 15 (b) (1) of relevant Hluttaw Election by-laws. Until the day after the election, in accordance with section 15 (b) (2), if a person wished to obtain a copy of the voter lists under good reason, we could issue the lists to the person in accordance with the law, but no application was requested.
4. Only after the election results were announced, some political parties made various allegations, and some parties held press conferences to make allegations by saying that election officials let those who were not on the voter lists, under-18 persons, and those who did not have Citizenship Scrutiny Cards to cast their votes. They alleged that holders of voter-slips were allowed to vote without any inspection and the number of people who actually voted was larger than the number of eligible voters. Then, some Hluttaw candidates and some voters requested their relevant Township Election Sub-commissions to give them copies of eligible voter lists. The Union Solidarity and Development Party (Yangon Region) also requested us to let them copy the final eligible voter list – Form (1) – of the 45 Townships in the Yangon Region.
5. Head and deputy head of each polling station, voter list checkers, and those who issued the ballot papers checked the people to see whether they really were on the relevant voter list. If the person was on the list, he/she had to sign on the voter list. If the voter was not able to sign, a fingerprint of the voter was taken, and then the voter could cast his/her vote.
6. When the polls closed, election officials had to enter various information — the number of eligible voters, the number of people who actually voted, the number of votes obtained by each candidate, and the number of rejected ballots and missing ballots — in the relevant forms. Then, the results were announced via Form (16) at the relevant polling station. The head of the polling station, election officials, polling station agents of Hluttaw candidates, and witnesses (general public) had to sign the Form (16).
7. After counting votes and filling the required forms, ballots papers voted for candidates, advance ballot papers, unused ballot papers, receipts, Form (16-1), the voter list used in the polling station, receipts related to advance voting, and Form (17), which is related to rejected ballots, were put into small packages in accordance with Section 66 (g) (h) (i) and (j) of the relevant Hluttaw Election by-laws, and then those small packages had to be put into a large package. Then the package had to be officially sealed. After that, alongside the relevant Quarter/Village-tract Election Sub-commission, polling station officials had to hand over the package to the Township Election Sub-commission immediately.
8. Township Election Sub-commission had to count the advance votes received until 4 pm on Election Day in accordance with Section 67, and then the information had to be filled in Form 18. The results (Form 16) obtained from heads of the relevant polling stations and the results in Form 18 were collected, and the relevant information had to be filled in Form 19. After that Township Election Sub-commission members, Hluttaw candidates or their election agents, and the witnesses (general public) had to sign the forms. Then, the election results were sent to the relevant Region/State Election Sub-commissions for public announcement.
9. After that, Township Election Sub-Commission had to send the Record of Township Election to the relevant Election Sub-commission of the Self-Administered Division/ Zone or the relevant District Election Sub-commission in accordance with Section 86 (a) of the relevant Hluttaw Election Law. In accordance with Section 86 (b), the relevant Election Sub-commission of the Self-Administered Division/ Zone or the relevant District Election Sub-commission must carefully maintain the lists of the votes, records of the election, reports of election expenditures of Hluttaw candidates and other necessary documents until the next general election is complete.
10. In accordance with Section 86 (b) of the Hluttaw Election, the relevant Election Sub-commission of the Self-Administered Division/ Zone or the relevant District Election Sub-commission must keep well the lists of the votes and other electoral documents. The voter lists used in the general elections are now in the packages that are sealed, so we cannot let anybody to photocopy the lists. Relevant Hluttaw Election laws and by-laws do not stipulate that electoral forms and documents except Form 20 (election expenditure report of the candidate) must be allowed to be photocopied.
Union Election Commission