Chin: Towards a More Progressive Election
6,730 more eligible voters have been added to the voters list of the highly anticipated Chin State elections scheduled to take place on 8 November 2015. This is one of many achievements and democratic steps being taken in the run up to the elections as more women and parties become involved in the political process.
Below is an article from Burma News International:
An updated version of Chin State’s voter list has increased by 6,730 eligible voters, according to statistics from a second revised voter list recently released by the Chin State Election Sub-Commission.
“Now people have been submitting form No. 3. So it's likely the voter list will keep increasing. The voter list has been copied from the immigration department so there may still be errors. We want the public to fill in [the gaps],” said U Linn Kyaw, an officer from the Chin State Election Sub-Commission.
Because many roads and bridges linking rural areas in Chin State have been destroyed by recent flooding, political parties and many members of the public worry about the reliability of voter lists for residents living in rural areas.
“Voter lists have more errors in the villages than in towns. There are cases of names not being included and misspelled. Transportation has hindered the flow of information,” said a local resident from Tiddim.
Chin State will have 782 voting stations on Election Day and at least three people have been assigned per station to guard the voting list. Each person performing this duty receives 3,000 kyats per day for their expenses.
Chin State, located in western Burma, had 266,943 eligible voters on the first voter list and a total of 273,673 eligible voters on the second voter list. Concerns remain however that many people have still been left off of this list.
