A village chairman from Maungdaw Township forcibly collected funds from villagers for the village election commission to meet expenses for travel and other official commission work, said a villager.

U Maung Thein Nyint, the village chairman of Longdon Village Tract in northern Maungdaw Township, has been collecting 5,000 Kyats from each household since the first week of September.

"All households had to contribute 5,000 Kyat to the village election commission fund. No household in the village tract wanted to contribute, but they did for fear of retaliation from the village authorities," the villager, who wished to remain anonymous, said.

The Longdon Village Tract is composed of four villages - Kyung Gon, Sin Thay Byin, Zay Di Byint, and Longdon - and has over 1,500 households.

"If we had refused to contribute, the village authorities would deprive us of opportunities, such as permission to travel, farm or fish. All villagers are afraid of such retaliation by the authorities, so they have to pay the village chairman for the election commission fund," he said.

An elder complained to the Maungdaw Township authorities about the illegal collections by Maung Thein Nyunt, but no action was taken, despite authorities going to the village tract to investigate.

Since the central body of the Election Commission in Naypyidaw has failed to provide funds to village election commissions, the village councils are collecting funds from local villagers to pay for their travel and office expenses.

On the Friday evening programme, the BBC Burmese service aired an interview with Ko Mying Zaw, secretary of Myanmar Rakhine State Nationalist Force Party, regarding the fund collection by the township election commission from several villages in Kyauktaw Township in Arakan State.

In the interview, it was revealed that the Township Election Commission recently collected 50,000 Kyats from the villages of Kyin Nin Gan, Pawdaw Mu, Chaung Wa and Chaung Pyar in Kyauktaw Township. Many villages have been forced to pay the money to the election commission.

According to local sources, the election commission in Arakan State has also been collecting 10,000 Kyats on average from business syndicates and companies across the state.