Dismal turnout for first municipal elections

Dismal turnout for first municipal elections

By Kyaw Phone Kyaw and Noe Noe Aung   |   Saturday, 27 December 2014

As he slowly emerged from the polling station on Mahabandoola Garden Street in Kyauktada township, U Maung Ni, 80, shielded his eyes from the midday sun.

He was the first person in almost half an hour to cast a vote at the station in Yangon's municipal election on December 27.

For him, voting simply meant choosing the candidate who appeared the least-worst option.

"It was a snap decision. I just ticked the box next to the one I thought would not be too bad," said the 80-year-old former general manager of army-owned Myanmar Economic Holdings Limited.

U Maung Ni had just voted for seven candidates, including one representative on Yangon City Development Committee, and three each for district- and township-level positions.

A total of 115 positions were open to elected candidates, including four on YCDC, three for each of the city's four districts and three for each township. At the district and township levels, candidates were divided into three categories - community leaders, experts and civil society - and voters had to select one from each.

U Maung Ni said that he was unsure what the candidates would be able to achieve in office but voted out of a sense of duty.

"This is a kind of election, so citizens have a duty to vote. But the candidates are not really in touch with the public so I didn't know who to choose," he added.

He was one of dozens of people that The Myanmar Times met before and after they went to vote on December 27. Like U Maung Ni, all said the names and photos on the ballot form meant little to them.

"I just chose the candidates based on their photo," admitted Daw Khin Myint Ye, a 58-year-old resident of Bahan township.

The lack of familiarity with the candidates - largely the result of a ban on political party members from taking part - was one of a number of factors that dampened turnout.

Voting opened at 6am and throughout the morning just a trickle of people wandered in and out of polling stations. By the early afternoon, most stations had received just a few dozen voters out of the hundreds registered to cast a ballot. If anything, fewer voters turned up as the day went on.

"More than 30 people have voted out of the 294 on the roll," said an electoral official from the Mahabandoola Garden Street polling station.

There were few reports of irregularities, with some voters praising station officials for explaining to them how to fill out their ballot forms according to the rules.

While some candidates had encouraged the public to vote in order to bring reform to a municipal body often criticised for its lack of transparency and poor service delivery, many people appeared more interested in watching the Myanmar Academy Awards ceremony, which began in the afternoon.

Ma Thu Thu Aung, 28, from Yankin township said she did not vote because she knew none of the candidates.

"I only saw one pamphlet distributed during the campaign period," she said. "The other reason I didn't vote is because I don't think [the election] will have any effect on the city."

She said she was so disinterested that she had even forgotten it was election day.

"To be honest, I just knew that the Academy Awards were on today," she added.

Many of the city's 5.2 million residents could not have voted even if they wanted to, however. The election was limited to one person from each household, and only 401,000 of an estimated 870,000 households were eligible due to strict residency criteria.

Still, this was better than the committee's original proposal that just 1.5 percent of the population - handpicked by the YCDC election commission - be allowed to vote, in order to save money.

U Win Cho, a western district candidate for YCDC, said the authorities had never intended for the election to be competitive.

"This election was originally created as a façade," he said. "But because of some MPs - especially [Yangon Region Hluttaw representative] Daw Nyo Nyo Thin - they changed their decision to allow more people to vote."

In addition to the low turnout, errors were reported on some electoral rolls. An official from a polling station in Sayar San North ward in Bahan township said that some eligible voters were left off the roll.

"One had a household member list [form 66/6] but when he came here, his name was not on the roll so he had to go back. There have been three or four people like this so far," he said.

YCDC election commission member U Myint Thein Soe refused to comment on the reasons for the poor turnout.

"We can only say that the result and the number of voters will be released 48 hours [after the election]. Why people have chosen not to vote is simply up to them. They will have their reasons. It is too early to speculate," he said.

Some candidates, however, took aim at the government for failing to educate voters about the election.

"I am not satisfied to see just a few voters at each booth," said U Thein Win, an expression of disappointment and frustration etched on his face. "I don't blame the people though. The state-run newspapers did nothing to support this election."

"Just look at this," the YCDC candidate for Yangon's western district said as he gestured toward the polling booth.

"Nobody is coming to vote. The township or ward administrative offices should be doing something to motivate and remind people to vote, like going around with loudspeakers."

U Win Cho estimated that less than 40pc of those eligible had voted in his district. He attributed this to a lack of faith both in YCDC and elections more generally, the latter because of the poor performance of hluttaw representatives elected in 2010.

"One reason [for the poor turnout] is that people voted for hluttaw representatives to work for them four years ago but there is no obvious result from it," he said. "That's why people do not have any faith in elections."

http://www.information.myanmaronlinecentre.com/dismal-turnout-for-first-municipal-elections/