The most important task for UEC to conduct a Multi-Party Democracy General Election is compiling the list of eligible voters (voter list). It was found that the previous government took control some Union Ministries and departments in order to win the elections and made plans in advance 2 years before the Multi-Party Democracy General Election was held. [1]

 Section 5 (a) of respective Hluttaw Election Rules states, “In making the list of voters, ward/village-tract election sub-commissions make the list of voters according to the table defined by UEC and have to be based on the list made by heads of wards or village-tracts and the list of population made by township office of immigration and population department”.

 Therefore, according to the provisions in rules, ward/village-tract election sub-commissions compile the voter list based on the population list by ward/village-tract administrators who were appointed and assigned by township administration offices. In this regard, General Administration Department plays a very important role during the voter list compilation process by UEC and election sub commissions. General Administration Department was under the Ministry of Home Affairs when the voter list was being made for 2010 Multiparty General Election, 2012 By-election, 2015 Multiparty General Election, 2017 By-election and 2018 By-election. According to the decision made at a Union Government Meeting No. 23/2018, General Administration Department was moved and oversight by Union Government Office starting from 28.12.2018. Then Interim Central Census Committee and Interim Census Committee for Nay Pyi Taw, States and Regions were formed by announcement No. 14/2019 signed by former President U Win Myint dated 23.1.2019. [2] [3]

 Moreover, the former UEC designated 2019 as Voter List year to compile voter list for 2020 Multiparty General Election and the project of collection of population list and compilation of Basic Voter List was launched on 13.6.2019. The population lists were prepared in advance by General Administration Department under Union Government Ministry through ward/village-tract administrators and clerks who participate throughout the electoral process. As part of interventions to win the election for the NLD party, the plans were made by the former UEC in advance to collect, amend and add to the voter list for the 2020 Multiparty General Election. [4]

 Actually, the process to compile the population list shall be done by General Administration Department and scrutinized by Department of Immigration and Population. The NLD party government made systemic efforts by forming Immigration and Human Resources Ministries in States/Regions except Shan and Rakhine and appointing additional Ministers for these ministries by the order of the President’s Office, thereby attempting to control the Immigration and Population department, which is crucial for elections. These measures were controversial as it is inconsistent with the provisions of Table 2 of Constitution and the appointments of new ministries are as follows: [5] [6]

 It was found that the new ministry was formed just before starting to work on the voter list in collaboration with the General Administration Department and the Department of Immigration and Population for the 2020 Multi-party Democracy General Election.

 After being appointed as Minister for Immigration and Human Resources in Kachin State, U Zaw Win sat for an interview with the Myitkyina Journal, and said the main reason for establishing the new Ministry was to achieve the correct and accurate voter list, UEC, GAD and Immigration and Population Department would work together on compiling data to include eligible voters into the voter list; he would lead the team as patron but eventually the voter list had lots of errors. [7]

 Voter list support groups for each State and Region were formed by the instruction of Union Government Office Letter No. 7/464-General /aphaya(2020) dated 4.8.2020 assigning the State/Region chief ministers as team leaders. The former UEC also issued Letter No. 4/ yakapa (146)/kamaya dated 10.8.2020 informing that voter list support groups for an accurate and correct voter list were formed by Union Government Office and giving instruction to State/Region Election Sub Commissions and Union Territory Election Sub Commission to provide voter list (which was displayed once) in soft copy CD if the teams asked for the list. Later, State/Region Election Sub Commissions sent the voter list soft copy CDs to State/Region government offices. Ministers of Immigration and Population under State/Region Governments led the volunteers and did on ground voter list collection and NLD party members and youths who were NLD party supporters were included in these volunteers, and there was no coordination with election sub commissions at various levels. [8] [9]

 When the population list was collected in order to compile the voter list, ward/village tract administrators led the population list data collection groups. It was found that there were ward/village tract administrators who were appointed by NLD party government and they worked together with NLD party campaign teams when the voter list was being collected. During the process, they did not check whether the people actually lived in respective ward/village tract or not, had Citizenship Scrutiny Cards or not, and met eligible criteria as prescribed in respective Hluttaw Laws or not, but they did try to add people who do not have Citizenship Scrutiny Cards and/or hold Citizenship Scrutiny Cards into voter list and there was mass inclusion of duplicate voters twice or more than three times. Although Section 15(c) of Chapter 6 of the relevant Hluttaw Election Law states that “Whoever has the right to vote in any constituency shall not be included in the voting roll of any constituency other than that of the constituency concerned at the same time”, they have ignored the existing laws and worked only for the victory of NLD party. According to Section 19(b) of the relevant Hluttaw Election Law, “the names not eligible are included in the voting roll, delete such names from the voting roll”, but the names were not deleted and still added in the voter list. [10] [11]

 In the 2020 Multi-party Democracy General Election, the total number of eligible voters reported by former UEC was 38,271,447, total number by Department of Immigration and Population was 31,775,330. The number of people by General Administration Department in November 2020 who are at the age of 18 was 35,476,833 and the difference between these numbers shows that it was planned in advance for malpractices and electoral frauds. [12]

 The former UEC issued announcement No. (189/2020) dated 10-10-2020 allowing the voters who are 60 years and above to cast advance votes starting from 29.10.2020 before the election and after that, in some places, NLD party campaign teams joined when the advance votes were collected at voters’ houses and it caused unlawful voting. On 8.10.2020 and 11.10.2020, the former UEC issued the instruction that allowed the people, who were unable to return to their respective constituencies, to cast advance votes. Because of these instructions, there was mass inclusion of people who do not have a Citizenship Scrutiny Card, and also people who hold the same Citizenship Scrutiny Cards were added to the voter list and were allowed to cast the votes twice or more than three times.

 The former UEC issued the instruction Letter No. 4 / yakapa (170) /kamaya, dated 19.8.2020 and permitted the voters who do not have Citizenship Scrutiny Cards at polling stations and also allowed people who only had voter slips. The people who do not have Citizenship Scrutiny Cards were allowed to cast the votes and also people who hold the same Citizenship Scrutiny Cards could cast votes twice and more than three times which were against the existing laws and was in violation of the provisions of Section 59 of the respective Hluttaw Election Law. The former UEC also issued the instruction Letter No. 4 / Yakapa (420) / Kamaya, dated 6.11. 2020 stating that ballot papers which were stamped with only (√) sign without UEC logo to be considered as valid votes. It shows that NLD party members intended well to use (fake) stamps which did not have a UEC logo during voting. [13] [14]