Violence and Intimidation

The Union of Myanmar Federation of National Politics (UMFNP) party members were intimidated during party work in Poung Kyo village in Shwe Taung Township, western Bago region on 26 August.

UMFNP’s group led by U Kyaw Kyaw Lwin were intimidated by members of the Swan Arr Shin group when they were issuing party membership cards to members, U Aye Lwin, chairman of UMFNP party, said.

A citizen in Pegu Division who spoke to Burma Election Tracker described a personal experience with USDP's abuse of advance votes and overheard stories of other violations.

According to inside networks, there were about 1,700 eligible voters in Pouk Taw Township constituency 5, Arakan State, but only about 600 of them voted. Most of them boycotted the election. Although there was not advance voting, there were about 40 advance votes when votes are counted. There were many people in Kyoung Sout village who could not vote, as they were not in voters list. The village head of A’ Lal Kyun ran away with ballot boxes, as so many people voted for RNDP instead of USDP.

A voter in Arakan State reported: "We employees were casting votes in the morning during office time. Because we had to cast vote in the presence of senior officers, we could not choose to vote the parties we like. We voted for the USDP as told by senior officers. Each employee were brought three envelopes with one ballot slip in each. On each slip, they had to tick on the boxes next to USDP logo. Envelopes with slips in them were then returned to TPDC chairperson without being sealed. Employees were threatened that they would be fired if did not vote for USDP."

A citizen in Mon State reported: "the entire village assembled and every villager was compelled to vote. There were fairly high number of voters. Police and soldiers involved in directing villagers to vote and everyone participated in voting and voted for lion party (USDP) as they were afraid. I don't think civilians like the election. I don't like it either. I don't expect anything out of the election."

A citizen from Sagaing Division told Burma Election Tracker, "I had to cast advance vote for USDP."

USDP အားၾကိဳတင္မဲထည့္ေပးရပါသည္။

Advance votes were collected from elderly people following the order of WPDC and authorities cast the vote for USDP. Locals were told that they would be deadly punished if they didn't vote for the USDP. While collecting advance votes, elderly people were pressured by the force of officers to vote for USDP. When complaints about such cases were submitted to Election Commission, the WPDC threatened people that they would kill people who would file such complaints again.

Retired colonel Kyaw Khin, a USDP Township parliamentary candidate, offered monetary inducement to the head of polling station in charge to ensure that he would win the votes. He offered a thousand kyat to each of the teachers who were working as polling station officials. Kyaw Khin also collected about 400 advance votes from Muslim fishermen. He threatened villagers, stating that they would be in big trouble if they did not vote for him.