There were over 42,000 rejected ballots and missing ballots in the elections held in Arakan State, according to the Arakan Election Sub-Commission.

U Thurein Htut, Secretary of the Arakan State Election Sub-Commission said: “We don’t know for which party the voters cast their ballots. Some voted for a candidate twice. They ended up as rejected ballots. There were missing ballots. For example, 100 people cast their votes. We found only 93 votes when we had finished counting. Some voters took out the ballot papers without putting them into the ballot boxes. That is why the ballot papers are missing.”

There are 42,760 invalid ballots in Arakan State—41,191 rejected ballots (15,625 for lower house, 13,227 for upper house and 12,339 for the Arakan State parliament) and 1,569 missing ballots (580 for lower house, 721 for upper house and 268 for Arakan State parliament).

U Thurein Htut, Secretary of the Arakan State Election Sub-Commission said: “We don’t know for whom the voters cast their ballots. Some voters vote for a candidate twice. It becomes rejected ballots. There are missing ballots. For instance, 100 people cast their votes. We found only 93 votes when counting the votes. Three votes are missing. Some voters took out the ballot papers but took ballot papers without putting them into the ballot boxes. That is why the ballot papers are missing.”

An increase in the number of reject and missing ballots is due to the lack of voter education during the COVID-19 pandemic, he added.

Due to the fear of the rising number of COVID-19 cases across the country, the political parties called on the Union Election Commission (UEC) to postpone the election. But the UEC held the election as planned. The nationwide voter turnout rate is over 70 percent.

There were over 440,000 eligible voters in Arakan State. The voter turnout rate was 68.86 percent, according to the Arakan State Election Sub-Commission.