violations of election laws

Polling station officers in Shan State South’s Loilem township were reportedly directed by Township Election Commission members to provide advance signatures for 150 ballot papers each saying they were for advance voters, according to sources close to officers.

“My friend who is one of the officer’s in-charge of polling stations signed on 26 October,” said a source.

There will be 46 polling stations in Loilem. The other 45 officers were also reported to have been asked to sign for the same number of ballots each, said another source.

The candidate for the National Unity Party (NUP) in Hinthada Township in Irrawaddy Division complained on Saturday to the Election Commission of illegal practices in collecting advanced votes by his rival, Htay Oo, the general-secretary of the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP).

Votes in Burma’s long-awaited and much maligned national election have been cast and counted as an early poll system went into motion in Maungdaw Township yesterday.

The election is officially slated for November 7 - Burma’s first election since the now disbanded National League for Democracy swept the 1990 polls but was prevented from assuming power.

23 October 2010: The Chin Progressive Party (CPP) has filed a defamation case against Pu Enok, an independent candidate in Kalemyo constituency, Sagaing division for the 2010 general elections in Burma with the Election Commission.

It is learnt that Pu Enok mentioned Pu Nothankap, President of the CPP’s, personal life during a poll campaign on 19 October in Tahan market, Kalemyo by distributing pamphlets. The CPP has complained to the Election Commission about it.

reports coming out of Shan State in northeast Burma suggest the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) and the authorities are collecting advance pro-USDP votes through intimidation in many rural area across Shan State.

According to the Shan State election watch group, the authorities are forcing villagers to vote in advance in villages near Kyethi, Lashio, Mong Ya, and Tang Yan Townships.

Voters in Rangoon have complained this morning that they could not cast votes freely due to being watched closely by pro-junta party candidates.

Members of the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) have reportedly been loitering close to polling booths. When one man notified polling station officials, he was told that the men were on security duty.

USDP uses back of electoral biodata forms in campaign
Sunday, 07 November 2010 00:36 Ko Wild

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – The main junta-backed party has been using the reverse side of biodata forms, used to build electoral rolls, for its campaigning in a town in Burma’s northwestern Sagaing Division, the leader of a rival party said yesterday.

Pressure to support USDP further fouls vote integrity
Saturday, 06 November 2010 20:00 Mizzima News

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – In perhaps one of the final blows to the credibility of Burma’s highly criticised general election, reports have emerged of residents being forced to vote for junta-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party candidates in voting undertaken in advance of tomorrow’s poll.

A fishing industry businessperson from Labutta, Irrawaddy Division, stated that USDP has been granting permission to businessmen in Labutta District, including unlawful businesses, in order to get early votes for USDP.

www.irrawaddy.org

A resident from Tharawaddy said that U Thein Sein, the USDP leader, used government money in the
USDP’s campaigns.