YANGON — To help voters make well-informed choices on Nov. 8, an election mobile application, mVoter 2020, has been unveiled, providing data on candidates and electoral procedures.
It contains biographical details on nearly 7,000 candidates contesting Union, state and regional seats, enabling users to search by constituency with information about the political parties and policies and guidelines on how to vote.
All the information comes from the Union Election Commission (UEC) and is available in the Myanmar language.
During an online launch of the digital platform, UEC chairman U Hla Thein endorsed the app saying it will be a critical source for voters amid the COVID-19 crisis.
Nearly 1,000 coronavirus cases are being reported per day and election campaigning is restricted in many areas. No campaigning is allowed where stay-at-home orders are in place.
mVoter was developed by a tech team in Myanmar, Pop Stack, which won a MaePaySoh challenge election app competition held ahead of the 2015 general election. For November’s election it has been upgraded with new categories, including news and announcements from the UEC and answers to frequently asked questions on issues like the voter lists.
During the 2015 election campaign, the app received over 12 million enquiries.
More traffic is expected this year as the number of internet users in Myanmar has risen from nearly 7 million in 2015 to 22 million.
“This online voter education and information tool will contribute in enhancing the transparency of the election,” Marcus Brand, the head of International IDEA Myanmar, said at the launch event.
The app should be available for free later this week for Android and Apple devices and the website is already operational at www.maepaysoh.org.
