Monitoring Groups Yet to Register With Mon State Election Commission
By NETWORK MEDIA GROUP (NMG)
Monday, August 24, 2020
No monitoring groups have registered with Mon State’s election commission regarding the national polls scheduled for November, according to the commission’s head.
The Union Election Commission (UEC) announced that domestic election monitoring groups must register with the respective local election commission offices and international election monitoring groups must register with at the Union-level commission between July 7 and October 15.
“Nobody has called us about it. We already gave the order to the township offices about it. One month has already passed, but nobody has come to register with us,” Hein Lin Htet, the head of the Mon State Election Commission, told NMG.
Political analysts have pointed out that the UEC has increased restrictions on election monitoring groups, and therefore expect fewer groups to come forward than in the last general election in 2015.
“Election monitoring groups are needed for an election because they can independently monitor whether or not an election is free and fair. So this is important,” Min Min Nwe, who is working with Mon civil society, told NMG.
Nai Pe Thaung, chair of the National Unity Party (NUP) for Mon State, agreed that these groups will play a crucial role.
“Monitoring groups will monitor fraud and irregular activities at the polling stations. Their election report will make sure that the UECs knows all of the matters concerning the election,” the told NMG.
A total of 11 election monitoring groups registered with Mon State Election Commission in 2015, and more than 400 people acted as observers.
Local election monitoring groups, international election monitoring groups from the European Union and the US-based Carter Center monitored this general election across the country.
There will be more than 950 polling stations in Mon State in the 2020 general election on November 8, and more than 1.74 million eligible voters.
