There are 1,695 soldiers who have registered to vote in Putao District in Kachin State, said Daw Ei Ei Phyo, the officer of the District Election Sub-Commission. Putao Township has 1,393 service personnel voters and Machanbaw Township, 302.
“The sub-commission compiled the list of voters based on the battalion in Putao District. The soldiers stationed there arrived to perform military duties.”
U Aung Kham, a lower house candidate from Kachin State People’s Party from Swanparabwan Township said: “Putao District has five townships, namely Putao, Khaunglanphu, Machanbaw, Naungmon and Swanparabwan. Service personnel voters are included only in the lists of voters in Putao and Machanbaw Townships. The people said there are two reasons why the service personnel arrived in Swanparabwan Township. The first point is they arrived here for election security. The second is they will cast their votes in the election. The number of service personnel accounts for around one-fifth of the population in the township. Here there are hundreds of migrant workers. The combined number of migrant workers and service personnel is nearly half of the voters in the township.”
There are four polling stations for military service personnel—three in Putao Township and one in Machanbaw Township. There are 138 polling stations in Putao District.
However, Daw Ei Ei Phyo denied Kachin allegations stating, “There is no battalion in Sawanparabwan. The battalions are located in Putao and Machanbaw Townships. The election law allows the people who stay in a place for at least 90 days to apply for voting with Form-3 (b). That’s why service personnel are included in the lists in Swanparabwan.”
“The significant point is the service personnel can apply for voting with Form-3 (b) if they have been staying at a place for 90 days. That’s why the number of voters may increase on the second display of voters’ list,” Daw Ei Ei Phyo added.
In Putao District, there were 55,326 voters in the 2015 General Election. Now the number of voters has increased to 60,275 in the 2020 General Election, according to the Putao District Election Sub-Commission Office.
A total of eight political parties will compete in the upcoming election, namely the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), the National League for Democracy (NLD), the National Unity Party, Lisu National Development Party, Kachin National Congress Party, the United Congress Party, Kachin State People’s Party and the Union Betterment Party (UBP).
In Putao District, 28 candidates will run for the lower house seats, six for the upper house, 27 for the State Constituency-1, 30 for the State Constituency-2, seven for Bamar ethnic affairs minister, eight for Shan ethnic affairs minister, eight for Lisu ethnic affairs minister and six for Rawang ethnic affairs minister.
