UEC downplays US concerns

 The UEC chairman Tin Aye, at a press conference at Myanmar Peace Centre in Yangon, said: “US Republican Senator Mitch McConnell said further normalisation of relations between the US and Myanmar would be ‘much more difficult’ if the election doesn't reflect the people's will. I don’t fear. How can they measure this?”

 “We accept the fact that elections reflect the people’s will even if our favourite party loses. Whatever party wins, it must have come from the public will. If they want to impose sanctions just because their favourite party did not win the election, I don’t care about that. We don’t care even if they impose sanctions 100 times.” 

To clarify the compilation of voter lists, he said the lists were based on household registration so there could be mistakes if those lists were incorrect. He said the aim of announcing the voter lists beforehand was to find mistakes and amend them.

He said the reason many people had the same birthday (June 30, for example) listed was that they mentioned only their birth year in their household registration lists. 

“We take great care if the birth year is 1997. We see whether the voter will be 18 year or not. For other years, we mention June 30, 1984, or June 30, 1992, for example. They ask why it is. We did so because a complete date of birth has to be used by the computers. If dates of birth are wrong, voters can come to us for amendment. We have discussed correcting the voter lists with them [the NLD],” said Tin Aye.

He said the NLD issued a statement on June 4 saying it had cooperated with the commission on this matter after sending the open letter the day before. But all details about their discussions and how the problems were solved were not mentioned in the statement, he added.

“They should write how mistakes have been mended. We did not respond to that. But international pressure comes,” he added.

Among challenges UEC is facing is the sporadic fighting in some areas, including in the Kokang Self-Administered Zone.

Tin Aye admitted that elections in the region would be possible only when the ceasefire agreement is signed and fighting stops.

He said the UEC cannot compile a voter list in the Kokang and Wa areas because they cannot establish UEC branches in those areas. For the same reason, elections were not held in the Wa region in 2010.

“We made conditions for the Kokang and Wa areas for the 2015 general election. If the situation in Kokang area is stable in one or two month’s time, we will collect voter lists. Voter lists can be announced if we can hold elections in those areas. If stability in Kokang area is restored, we can hold the election. However, it will be difficult to hold the election in Wa areas. We will suspend the election if a natural disaster or instability occurs, otherwise the election would not be free and fair,” said the UEC chairperson.

The UEC is has planned to hold elections in all townships in Kachin State, but it will suspend elections in townships in case of unrest.