As the National League for Democracy (NLD) claims a resounding victory in Sunday’s election, opposition parties have wasted no time in challenging the result.
On Monday, the chair of the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), Than Htay, said it was still too early for the NLD to announce that it had enough seats to form a government.
He repeated this message on Tuesday, posting on Facebook that much remained to be done before anyone could speak of the official election results.
“They can’t believe the results in Pyawbwe. I can only assume it wasn’t fair,” said defeated USDP candidate Thaung Aye
“Is this whole case of ending the voting process legal? It was a bit questionable, and it still is. It’s a journey that won’t end for a while because the evidence is still coming out,” he said, suggesting that there would be a need to investigate unspecified irregularities.
The USDP chair beat his NLD rival in Naypyitaw’s Zeyathiri township by a margin of more than 5,000 votes, in a result has been confirmed by the Union Election Commission (UEC).
Elsewhere, however, the party performed far more poorly than expected.
USDP candidate Thaung Aye, the incumbent MP for Pyawbwe township in Mandalay, told Myanmar Now that his loss against the NLD candidate was “unbelievable”.
“Everyone’s feeling bad that I lost. And they’re surprised. Some people can understand the USDP losing in some places, but they’ve said they can’t believe the results in Pyawbwe. I can only assume it wasn’t fair,” he said.
The results for the Pyithu Hluttaw constituency in Pyawbwe have been confirmed by the township election commission.
However, Thaung Aye said he himself has not signed off on the results and on Monday urged party members to challenge the outcome.
He added that the USDP was investigating allegations that the total number of votes cast at some polling stations exceeded the number of eligible voters.
“As of now, there are two or three polling stations that had this problem. We can only elaborate on the details later. If it’s true, we’ll object. This isn’t something we’ll just accept,” he said.
Zaw Min, the secretary of the Yamethin district election commission, which includes the township of Pyawbwe, told Myanmar Now there had been no such complaints or objections.
Tonzang township, in Chin state’s Falam district, reported the sort of discrepancies between the voter list and the results that Thaung Aye refers to, but the issue was soon resolved.
Falam district election commission chair San Tun told Myanmar Now that the voter list was inaccurate at the time of compiling it, but the results and turnout were confirmed to be accurate in front of responsible parties on Tuesday morning.
Kyaw Zeya, the vice-chair of the People’s Pioneer Party (PPP), which failed to win a single seat in the election, also said there were many reasons to object to the election results.
Political candidates and observers were allowed to use the parties’ logos at the polling stations, and only the NLD seemed to be aware of the opportunity to campaign at the last minute due to the lateness of an announcement by the UEC, he said.
There were also other issues, he added, including multiple cases of inaccurate voter lists, prolonged waits at polling stations, and the poor quality of the paper used for ballots and envelopes, all of which could affect the image of a free and fair election.
“There will be a PPP central executive committee meeting tomorrow. We’ll definitely be discussing these issues. We’ll know what to do as a party after the meeting,” said Kyaw Zeya, who lost out to an NLD candidate in Amyotha Hluttaw constituency (11) in Yangon.
“These allegations should have evidence. If there is evidence, we can solve it under the law,” said NLD spokesperson Dr Myo Nyunt
Dr Nyo Nyo Thin, who contested Amyotha Hluttaw constituency (9) in Tanintharyi region as an independent candidate, also said the election could be deemed unfair.
“Some people say that my name wasn’t on some ballots,” she said, adding there was no way to prove it. She plans to write a report on the election’s injustices.
Ko Ko Naing, director-general of the printing and publishing department under the Ministry of Information responsible for the printing of ballots, told Myanmar Now it was impossible to leave a candidate’s name off the ballot.
“UEC officials are present when the ballots are being printed. We turned in the exact number of ballots. There’s no way this is possible. We have records of the number of ballots that had errors while being printed. The police also provided security from the start of the printing date to the end of the election,” Ko Ko Naing said.
Myanmar Now reached out to the UEC to ask about the various parties’ claims of election-related issues, but there has not yet received a response.
NLD spokesperson Dr Myo Nyunt told Myanmar Now that making such allegations without providing evidence was not appropriate.
“These allegations should have evidence. If there is evidence, we can solve it under the law,” he said. He added that the NLD also received reports of election fraud, such as the use of forged stamps and double voting.
According to results reported by UEC branches nationwide, the NLD had won a total of 399 seats in parliament as of the morning of November 10, more than the 322 it would need to form a government, Dr Myo Nyunt confirmed.
In the days since the election was held, Russia and Japan have released statements welcoming Myanmar’s success in holding a free and fair election.
