Kayan Women's Group To Monitor Election

Kayan Women's Group To Monitor Election
by -
Kantarawaddy Times

Ten Kayan representatives from the Kayan Women’s Organization have submitted official requests to monitor the election as individuals, says the organization’s secretary.

“Ten people from the Kayan Women’s Organization have submitted their names to do monitoring on a nationwide scale. We can monitor anywhere we like, but we will only monitor in Phekon Township [southern Shan state] and Karenni State,” says Angel the organization's secretary.

The reason for doing the monitoring is to observe whether or not voting on Election Day is in line with specified rules and regulations and whether or not the election is free and fair. The organization will cooperate with alliance organizations in the release of a post election report.

“We want to know whether they follow the rules and regulations that have been specified by law, whether the voters can really vote freely and fairly, for example, whether there are any threats [against voters]. If no threats have been made, this is a change. We want to know whether the voting system that has been designed as they like is correct or not,” said a member of the election monitoring group.

Reached for comment the Karenni Women’s Organisation’s secretary, Mi Mi, said her organization does not have any plan to monitor the election.

According to the state election commission office, no women's organization has submitted applications to monitor the election in Karenni State so far. However organizations that will operate nationwide on polling day to monitor the election have submitted their applications to the Union Election Commission.

The Kayan Women’s Organization was established on January 3, 2008. The group has three main goals, they are uplifting the skills and abilities of women, protecting abused women, and supporting women and peace.

Translated by Thida Linn with editing by BNI staff.

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