The Union Election Commission (UEC) will postpone the election for constituencies, if there are additional constituencies which lack safety before the election date, U Myint Naing, a member of the Union Election Commission (UEC) said at a press conference on October 20th.
The UEC is reviewing and re-scrutinizing the remarks of the relevant departments about Paletwa Township which suffers from fighting and weak security, he said.
The UEC asked for the remarks from the Ministry of Union Government Office, the Ministry of Defence and Ministry of Home Affairs to scrutinize whether or not the constituencies are in a position to hold the elections three or four months ago. Before the release of the excluded constituencies, the UEC also demanded the remarks from the above-mentioned departments for the second time. The UEC released the lists of no-election areas after a review and scrutiny of remarks from the ministries and relevant election sub-commissions.
According to the remarks made by the relevant departments, townships and village-tracts which lack security and safety are excluded. The UEC reviewed the security and safety of voters, polling officers, polling staff, election observers, candidates and representatives of candidates.
The UEC is not making decisions on its own. Decisions are made after a review of remarks by the relevant departments, he continued.
However ethnic political parties have challenged the fairness and impartiality of UEC assessments. As UEC decisions are heavily based on the Burmese army’s views and their control over key ministries-Defence and Home Security, the bias of the UEC can be said to be embedded in the election process.
The UEC will hold the election for the missed out areas if the areas are found to be safe according to the remarks by the relevant departments before the election. The UEC will hold the election once safety has been restored to the areas after the election, he said.
On October 16th, the UEC canceled the elections in 15 constituencies, 23 wards and 558 village-tracts across the country citing that the areas are not in a position to hold a free and fair election.
The skipped townships, wards and village-tracts are 192 village-tracts in 11 townships in Kachin State, 53 village-tracts in six townships in Karen State, one village-tract in one township of Mon State, 42 village-tracts in two townships in Bago Region, nine townships and 15 wards and 137 village-tracts in four townships in Arakan State and six townships, eight wards and 133 village-tracts in 17 townships in Shan State.
