Mon State Election Commission to Build Nearly 1,000 Polling Stations

By NETWORK MEDIA GROUP (NMG)
Tuesday, August 25, 2020

The Mon State Election Commission has announced a plan to build 954 polling stations for the general election on November 8.

The figure includes some 49 polling stations where Burma Army soldiers can vote alongside civilians. The move is a shift from previous elections, where troops voted in separate stations within military bases.

“There will be no separate polling stations for the army. There is a school near the army’s ground, so we will set up a polling station in the school. Soldiers can vote in that polling station,” Mon State Election Commission head Hein Lin Htet told NMG, referring to an example of how soldiers would be integrated into mainstream voting.

There are more than 1.7 million eligible voters in Mon State in this coming election including soldiers and their family members, he added. Hein Lin Htet said that the commission had not prepared a separate voter list for soldiers and their families.

Police officer Tun Tun said that more than 1,000 specially appointed policemen will guard Mon State’s polling stations during the election, but some stations will also be jointly guarded by police and Burma Army soldiers.

“Regarding the security of the polling stations, we don’t have enough police… So we are preparing to appoint special police to take care of security duties,” Pol-Maj Tun Tun told NMG.

Not all of the stations will have the same capacity. Of the 954 polling stations throughout the state, 27 stations will serve less than 500 voters each. Ninety stations will serve up to 1,000 voters, and 184 stations are expected to see up to 1,500 voters. Some 460 stations will have between 1,500 and 2,500 voters each. The polling stations with the biggest capacity will allow for up to 3,000 voters. There will be 171 such stations.