• Burmese
Tuesday, July 15, 2025
No Result
View All Result
NEWSLETTER
The Irrawaddy
28 °c
Yangon
  • Home
  • News
    • Burma
    • Politics
    • World
    • Asia
    • Myanmar’s Crisis & the World
    • Ethnic Issues
    • War Against the Junta
    • Junta Cronies
    • Conflicts In Numbers
    • Junta Watch
    • Fact Check
    • Investigation
    • Myanmar-China Watch
    • Obituaries
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Opinion
    • Commentary
    • Guest Column
    • Analysis
    • Editorial
    • Stories That Shaped Us
    • Letters
  • Junta Watch
  • Ethnic Issues
  • War Against the Junta
  • In Person
    • Interview
    • Profile
  • Books
  • Donation
  • Home
  • News
    • Burma
    • Politics
    • World
    • Asia
    • Myanmar’s Crisis & the World
    • Ethnic Issues
    • War Against the Junta
    • Junta Cronies
    • Conflicts In Numbers
    • Junta Watch
    • Fact Check
    • Investigation
    • Myanmar-China Watch
    • Obituaries
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Opinion
    • Commentary
    • Guest Column
    • Analysis
    • Editorial
    • Stories That Shaped Us
    • Letters
  • Junta Watch
  • Ethnic Issues
  • War Against the Junta
  • In Person
    • Interview
    • Profile
  • Books
  • Donation
No Result
View All Result
The Irrawaddy
No Result
View All Result
Home News Burma

Myanmar Election Commission Says No Campaigning, No Polls Near Military Barracks

Thiha Lwin by Thiha Lwin
February 7, 2020
in Burma
Reading Time: 3 mins read
0 0
A A
A UEC press conference in Naypyitaw on Feb. 6, 2020. / Thiha Lwin / The Irrawaddy

A UEC press conference in Naypyitaw on Feb. 6, 2020. / Thiha Lwin / The Irrawaddy

5.1k
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

NAYPYITAW—Myanmar’s election authority has announced that political parties will continue to be barred from campaigning inside military cantonments ahead of this year’s election, and that —in a departure from previous elections—military personnel and their family members will have to cast their votes outside military barracks.

Union Election Commission (UEC) spokesman U Myint Naing said at the commission’s press conference in Naypyitaw on Thursday that “it is still impossible to campaign inside cantonments” due to security reasons.

He also reaffirmed that polling stations will not be operated inside military barracks in the November election.

RelatedPosts

Myanmar Junta Deploying Conscripts in Major Push to Reclaim Lost Territory

Myanmar Junta Deploying Conscripts in Major Push to Reclaim Lost Territory

July 10, 2025
2.6k
Drafting Voters as Cannon-Fodder; Rewarding Lackey Ladies; and More

Drafting Voters as Cannon-Fodder; Rewarding Lackey Ladies; and More

July 5, 2025
1.2k
Cambodia’s Hun Sen Accuses Thai PM of ‘Insulting King’

Cambodia’s Hun Sen Accuses Thai PM of ‘Insulting King’

June 27, 2025
952

In October last year, the UEC submitted draft amendments to electoral bylaws to the Union Parliament. The commission proposed a provision to mandate that polling stations for military personnel and their family members be placed outside the barracks, for them “to be able to cast votes together with civilian voters and to be transparent, where candidates, observers and party representatives can freely enter and monitor.”

Military spokesperson Brigadier General Zaw Min Tun told The Irrawaddy that electoral campaigning will not be allowed inside barracks due to the constitutional provision that civil servants must be free from party politics.

“All military personnel have the right to vote freely. We will not accept any party soliciting votes from us. There has never been such a tradition,” he said.

U Aung Kyaw Kyaw Oo, a lawmaker with the National League for Democracy (NLD), questioned the decision.

“If we are allowed to campaign, we will have a chance to articulate our party policies and military personnel will also have a chance to ask what they want to know. Now, they don’t have that chance,” he said.

The lawmaker said he had seen a campaign signboard for the Union Solidarity Development Party, widely believed to be a proxy for the Myanmar military, erected in a military cantonment in Yangon during the campaign period before the 2015 election. He claimed the signboard was removed only on the eve of the election, and urged the military to apply its closed-door policy equally to all parties.

Since the 2010 general election, military personnel and their family members in many constituencies have been ordered to vote in military cantonments, under the watch of their superiors. As Myanmar held a general election in 2015 and three by-elections in 2012, 2017 and 2018, monitoring of polling stations inside military compounds and the areas where military personnel live remained limited for security reasons.

Myanmar’s military has an estimated 500,000 personnel. With the addition of family members, over 1 million people out of an estimated 32 million eligible voters in the 2015 election were affiliated with the military.

According to the UEC, nearly 100 political parties are likely to field candidates in November. There are 99 political parties registered with the UEC so far and the commission is still scrutinizing applications of six more parties and has suspended three parties.

Over 37 million people in Myanmar will be eligible to vote in the 2020 general election, according to the UEC. However, the UEC’s list of voters does not include residents of five townships in the Wa Self-Administered Division. Under the previous Union government, the UEC was not able to compile voter lists for these townships and residents were unable to vote in 2015.

The UEC said it is working to hold polls in every constituency across the country in November.

Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko

You may also like these stories:

Myanmar UEC Warns Opposition Parties of Dissolution

Military, USDP, ANP Withhold Nominees For Constitution Amendment Committee

Ethnic Voters Face Disenfranchisement in Myanmar’s 2020 Election

Your Thoughts …
Tags: 2020 ElectionElectionMilitaryMilitary Pollingpolling stationsUnion Election Commission
Thiha Lwin

Thiha Lwin

Similar Picks:

AA Urges Myanmar Junta Troops to Surrender as Western Command Burns
War Against the Junta

AA Urges Myanmar Junta Troops to Surrender as Western Command Burns

by The Irrawaddy
December 18, 2024
25.4k

Ethnic army reportedly poised to capture regime’s last stronghold in Rakhine State.

Read moreDetails
Myanmar General in Charge of Shan State Disaster Handed Surprise Promotion
Burma

Myanmar General in Charge of Shan State Disaster Handed Surprise Promotion

by The Irrawaddy
February 5, 2024
24.5k

Naing Naing Oo elevated to Lieutenant-General and made chief of powerful Bureau of Special Operations No. 2, in a reshuffle...

Read moreDetails
Myanmar’s Chief of Eastern Command Purged After Karenni Defeats
Burma

Myanmar’s Chief of Eastern Command Purged After Karenni Defeats

by The Irrawaddy
January 12, 2024
20.1k

Major-General Hla Moe is reportedly the latest junta commander to pay the price for sweeping gains made by resistance forces. 

Read moreDetails
Myanmar Junta Counteroffensives Failing Across Country: Analysts
Analysis

Myanmar Junta Counteroffensives Failing Across Country: Analysts

by Hein Htoo Zan
September 20, 2024
16.8k

Three major operations to retake territory from ethnic armies and their allies are being hampered by troop shortages, experts say.

Read moreDetails
Myanmar Junta Orders All Security Personnel to Frontline as Losses Mount in Hard-Hit Regional Commands
Burma

Myanmar Junta Orders All Security Personnel to Frontline as Losses Mount in Hard-Hit Regional Commands

by The Irrawaddy
May 31, 2024
13.5k

Full-time military service order covers soldiers, personnel, police and border guards in eight regional commands.

Read moreDetails
Myanmar Junta Begins Forced Conscription of Women in Some Areas, Residents Say
Burma

Myanmar Junta Begins Forced Conscription of Women in Some Areas, Residents Say

by Hein Htoo Zan
May 31, 2024
13.5k

The regime is selecting women from lists of eligible conscripts and building barracks for them in Ayeyarwady; in Bago, women...

Read moreDetails
Load More
Next Post
Cardinal Charles Maung Bo in Yangon in December 2018 / Myo Min Soe / The Irrawaddy

Members of Religious Orders Should Have Right to Vote, Myanmar’s Cardinal Bo Says

Health workers conduct screenings at the checkpoint in Muse, Shan State, on the Chinese border. / Ministry of Information

Myanmar Deports Chinese Coronavirus Suspect While Hunting Another Four

No Result
View All Result

Recommended

Trump’s Tariffs to Hit Myanmar’s Garment Manufacturers Hard

Trump’s Tariffs to Hit Myanmar’s Garment Manufacturers Hard

6 days ago
1.3k
China’s Surveillance State Watches Everyone, Everywhere

China’s Surveillance State Watches Everyone, Everywhere

1 week ago
1.1k

Most Read

  • Myanmar Junta Launches Space Agency With Russian Help

    Myanmar Junta Launches Space Agency With Russian Help

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Myanmar Junta’s ‘Living Fence’ on Thai Border Falls to Karen Resistance

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • TNLA Invites Investment in Ruby and Mineral Towns Amid Myanmar Junta Onslaught

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • ‘Las Vegas in Laos’: the Riverside City Awash With Crime

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Indian Army Accused of Deadly Strike on Separatists in Myanmar

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0

Newsletter

Get The Irrawaddy’s latest news, analyses and opinion pieces on Myanmar in your inbox.

Subscribe here for daily updates.

Contents

  • News
  • Politics
  • War Against the Junta
  • Myanmar’s Crisis & the World
  • Conflicts In Numbers
  • Junta Crony
  • Ethnic Issues
  • Asia
  • World
  • Business
  • Economy
  • Election 2020
  • Elections in History
  • Cartoons
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Editorial
  • Commentary
  • Guest Column
  • Analysis
  • Letters
  • In Person
  • Interview
  • Profile
  • Dateline
  • Specials
  • Myanmar Diary
  • Women & Gender
  • Places in History
  • On This Day
  • From the Archive
  • Myanmar & COVID-19
  • Intelligence
  • Myanmar-China Watch
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Food
  • Fashion & Design
  • Videos
  • Photos
  • Photo Essay
  • Donation

About The Irrawaddy

Founded in 1993 by a group of Myanmar journalists living in exile in Thailand, The Irrawaddy is a leading source of reliable news, information, and analysis on Burma/Myanmar and the Southeast Asian region. From its inception, The Irrawaddy has been an independent news media group, unaffiliated with any political party, organization or government. We believe that media must be free and independent and we strive to preserve press freedom.

  • Copyright
  • Code of Ethics
  • Privacy Policy
  • Team
  • About Us
  • Careers
  • Contact
  • Burmese

© 2023 Irrawaddy Publishing Group. All Rights Reserved

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • Burma
    • Politics
    • World
    • Asia
    • Myanmar’s Crisis & the World
    • Ethnic Issues
    • War Against the Junta
    • Junta Cronies
    • Conflicts In Numbers
    • Junta Watch
    • Fact Check
    • Investigation
    • Myanmar-China Watch
    • Obituaries
  • Politics
  • Opinion
    • Commentary
    • Guest Column
    • Analysis
    • Editorial
    • Stories That Shaped Us
    • Letters
  • Ethnic Issues
  • War Against the Junta
  • In Person
    • Interview
    • Profile
  • Business
    • Economy
    • Business Roundup
  • Books
  • Donation

© 2023 Irrawaddy Publishing Group. All Rights Reserved

This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy.