The donors behind an election app that provides information about candidates’ race and religion are facing renewed criticism, this time for trying to wash their hands of responsibility for problems with the project.
The mVoter 2020 app was launched last Tuesday to condemnation from activists who warned that the inclusion of discriminatory data would inflame ethnic tensions ahead of Myanmar’s November 8 election.
The mobile phone application, which is an upgrade of an earlier version created by the Asia Foundation for the 2015 and 2017 elections, was developed by the Stockholm-based intergovernmental organization International IDEA for the EU-funded STEP Democracy project.
The donors say, however, that they are not responsible for the data included in the app, which was provided by Myanmar’s Union Election Commission (UEC).
The UEC, which requires potential candidates to provide information about their ethnic and religious affiliations, has been accused in the past of discriminating against minorities such as the Rohingya.
“The decision on the content of the mVoter2020 application and how it should continue, given the public controversy which the publication of the candidates’ ethnic affiliation has generated, lies with the UEC,” International IDEA’s country director Marcus Brand told Myanmar Now on Friday.
But such disclaimers have done little to satisfy activists, who now accuse the donors of trying to whitewash their involvement in the controversial project.
Yadanar Maung, a spokesperson for the activist group Justice for Myanmar, said in a statement released on Saturday that the donors have not only failed to address the problems with the app, but have also undermined key democratic principles in their handling of the matter.
“We are shocked that instead of removing the racist and discriminatory content in the mVoter 2020 app, International IDEA and STEP Democracy have removed records that detail their role in developing and funding the app,” Yadanar Maung said in the statement.
The statement, which cannot be read inside Myanmar because the group’s website has been blocked, says the move “raises serious concerns over a lack of transparency and accountability by international organizations involved in this democracy-promotion project.”
It adds: “This sends the wrong message to the Myanmar government, suggesting that it is OK to delete records when there are questions of wrongdoing, instead of taking responsibility and upholding principles of transparency.”
Others have noted that the UEC’s practice of collecting and disseminating information about the race and religion of candidates is just part of a much larger problem.
“This is not just about political candidates. I have also been criticizing the fact that everyone, whether they are in parliament or not, has to show their racial and religious status on their national ID cards,” said Naw Susana Hla Hla Soe, a candidate for minister of Karen ethnic affairs in Yangon region.
Even those who don’t necessarily disagree with the practice of revealing candidates’ ethnic or religious background acknowledge that discrimination is an endemic feature of life in Myanmar.
Nay Yan Oo, a member of the People’s Party who hopes to represent Kamayut township in the Pyithu Hluttaw, told Myanmar Now he wasn’t sure if it was appropriate or not to make these details about candidates public.
“But one thing I do know for sure,” he said, “is that we still have a lot of discrimination based on race or religion in our politics and in our society.”
But as a Muslim who has faced personal attacks on social media because of his faith, Si Thu Maung, the National League for Democracy’s Pyithu Hluttaw candidate for Pabedan township, said he rejected all efforts by the government to collect and use such information.
“In the future, if we follow genuine democratic standards, people will no longer be required by government agencies, or on job applications, to reveal their race or religion. So that is how I see this business with the mVoter app,” he told Myanmar Now.
Meanwhile, it has been learned that the UEC disqualified Dus Muhammed, a Rohingya candidate also known as Aye Win, on Friday because his parents are not recognized as Myanmar citizens. His official profile states that both he and his parents are “Bengali Bamar”—a designation that denies their Rohingya identity.
Myanmar Now has made repeated attempts to contact Union-level UEC commissioners for comment, but has not received a response.
