Arakan State Election Monitoring Committee plans to monitor more than 400 polling stations across the Arakan State with a view to checking on vote fraud and fairness.

U Khaing Kaung San, a member of the election monitoring committee explained “It will also look into the massive disenfranchisement of the electorate in Arakan State, to assess whether these cancellations were justified or not on security grounds.”

The UEC has canceled Pauktaw, Ponnagyun, Yathaedaung, Buthedaung, Yathaedaung, Maungdaw, Kyauktaw, Minbya, Myaebon and MraukU townships, citing that these townships as not in a position to hold a free and fair election.

Out of these nine, two townships Pauktaw, and Myaebon are widely considered by local people and independent monitors as fairly peaceful with no recent fighting, and therefore should never have been included in the list of cancelled constituencies.

These two constituencies were expected to strongly vote in favor of ethnic Rakhine parties as they did in the 2015 election.

In addition, the UEC skipped two wards and 52 village-tracts in Kyaukphyu Township, three wards and 29 village-tracts in Ann Township, four village-tracts in Sittwe Township and 10 wards and 52 village-tracts in Taunggup Township. A Rakhine election officer observed that on the basis of the 2014 census, 1.2 million voters have lost their right to vote out of the total Rakhine electorate of 1.6 million. 

The committee’s monitoring plan has prioritized Thandwe, Taunggup, Kyaukphyu, Yanbye and Manaung Townships in the south of Arakan State.

U Khaing Kaung continued “Will the election be fair in the constituencies where the elections are held or not? We will also cover electoral disputes. For instance, there may be many advance votes in Ann Township.”

The committee previously planned to monitor 500 polling stations in Arakan State. Now the committee will monitor around 400 polling stations as the Union Election Commission has canceled the elections in many townships of Arakan State.

“In the past, there is no chance for Arakanese parties to win in Thandwe and Taunggup townships, especially the Arakan National Party (ANP). Only the NLD has had a chance there. But sympathy and understanding of Arakanese parties has been circulating on social media. The public may see the cancellation of elections in the northern Arakan State as the UEC’s one-sided decision, and an example of discrimination. That’s why the locals have made cooperation with the Arakanese parties, and show more interest in the election, especially the young generation.”

According to the statement on October 27th, the UEC has removed three village-tracts in Kyaukphyu Township and four village-tracts in Ann Township from the list of cancelled constituencies.

There are 755 polling stations in the remaining eight townships in Arakan State, with around 448,852 eligible voters left, according to the election monitoring committee. The UEC previously planned to open 2,595 polling stations for 1,646,000 voters in Arakan State.