Burma’s border security force (Nasaka) has issued a secret order to all section commanders to garner support directly or indirectly for the junta-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) in Burma’s ensuing elections, a Nasaka officer said.

Nasaka’s director ordered section commanders to pressurize village authorities to get residents to vote for USDP candidates in the November 7 election, the officer said.

The Nasaka has already used threats and intimidation to influence the polls, said a village authority from Alaythankyaw, where touring Nasaka officials have urged residents to vote for the USDP and warned that if they support the National Democratic Party for Development (NDPD), they will face increased harassment.

Authorities in Maungdaw district set up an advanced voting system on September 29, according to an election watchdog group in Maungdaw. The authorities said the system would allow “elderly people, prisoners and women to vote on November 6.”

A Maungdaw official, who asked not to be named, said the USDP and its organizing group, the Regional Development Association (RDA), have met the township election commissioner secretly, to find ways to turn the advanced vote to the advantage of the USDP.

“Concerned authorities and USDP members are trying to win the November 7 election before any votes are cast by illegally using the power of the ruling junta to threaten local people from Maungdaw,” said the election watchdog group.

USDP candidate Aung Zaw Win and other party members reportedly met the influential Moulana Anwar, an organizer of religious leaders of the Nurullah para Madarasa, to urge him to support the USDP, the watchdog group said.

Aung Zaw Win reportedly told Anwar that the religious leaders risked losing their positions if they didn’t support the USDA.