Arakan Election Monitoring Group said it plans to provide special monitoring of 500 polling booths in the election scheduled for November 8, said U Khaing Kaung San, a member of the Arakan State Election Monitoring Leading Committee.
“We plan to open the multiplier courses for those who will monitor the election booths.” The multiplier training means those who have attended the training course will train the new batch. U Khaing Kaung San added, “We will assign duties to nearly 500 people to monitor the polling booths.”
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“The team plans to monitor the details of the election campaign by the political parties such as canvassing, disputes between the parties and the erection of vinyl posters. In addition, we will monitor whether or not the sufficient construction of polling booths has been carried out by Election Day and whether the upcoming election is free and fair,” he added.
The team will carry out the election monitoring mainly in the southern Arakan State.
The reason why the team has to prioritize the southern Arakan State is it is assumed that the election cannot be held in the northern Arakan State due to ongoing fights in the northern Arakan State, an increase in the number of IDPs and the public’s low interest in the election.
The political parties find it difficult to do canvassing as the stay at home notice has been imposed in all townships of the Arakan State.
This formation of CSOs to monitor the election is only in Arakan State. Other regions and states have plans to monitor the election, but the groups have yet to submit the application to the UEC.
There are over 1,640,000 voters in Arakan State and 2,596 polling booths will open there, according to the Arakan State Election Sub-Commission.
