The Ward/Village Population Data Collecting Team has been reportedly collecting household document data in order to compile voting lists for the upcoming 2020 election.

Authorities from the General Administration Department of township-level, Election Commission, Ministry of Immigration and Population and the Ministry of Education and Health have been leading the population data collection.

“The household population data has been collected across the township to create the primary voter list. And, the population data collection is being conducted at different levels of ward and villages,” said U Wai Yan Kyaw, Vice Township Administrative officer of the General Administration Department of Kyarinnseikgyi Township.

The household data collection started in the first week of July 2019 and should be completed by the end of August 2019. According to the official list on August 22nd, they have collected data from over 3,200 households.

“We collected all population data from anyone who has household registration and who does not and who is above 18 and under 18. But for the voter list, we only collect for those who are above 18 , and it is the commission’s responsibility. Our job is to collect data of everyone in each household,” said U Wai Yan Kyaw.

He added that the field data collection process smoothly operated in the villages under respective ethnic armed groups like the New Mon State Party and Karen National Union-controlled areas.

Nevertheless, the villagers still raised concerns on the census collection processes. According to the Min Sa-Tang Nyan a villager from eastern Wah Saa-li village, Nat ChaungKanar Village Tracts no prior explanation and approval of the implementation of population data collection occurred, thus the local people were not aware of the purpose of the procedures.

“Once we tried to investigate the case, we found out that only the National Registration Card (NRC) holders were enumerated for the data while the names of local people without NRC cards collected for the NRC application. They have not come to collect in our village yet. They [data collectors] have already conducted in our neighboring villages like Leik Pyaw and western Wah Saa-li. But local people are not aware of the reason for the data collection,”added Min Sa-Tang Nyan.

In the 2015 election, the only 10total of ten village tracts out of 67 along with 16 quarters in Kyarinnseikgyi town, Karen State were allowed to cast their votes due to security reasons, according to the news record.

The respective restricted voting areas still covers 34 Mon villages in Taung Pauk area and a group of villages residing along the Three Pagoda Pass-Thanphyuzayat route including Kyone Kawon, Pa-Pya, Htut Shan, Ah-Nan Kween, Win Kha-Na, Kyite Baluu, Ko Mar and in the Kyon Chaung village tract including Ah Ba-Lone, Tar Dien, Htee Wa Doh, Palea Don Phite and Kahlock Hanee.