Election Commission Submits Military Voting Law Amendments

The amendments will move polling places for military members and their families outside of barracks, where they can be monitored.

Nyan Hlaing Lin

Published on Nov 6, 2019

Voters arrive at a military hospital in Yangon’s Mingaladon Township on 8 November 2015.

The Union Election Commission has notified parliament of a set of amendments it has made to its current voting by-laws that will change the way military members and their families cast their ballots.

According to the notice, dated October 3, the amendments require state and regional election commissions to set up polling stations for military members and their families outside of military battalions; these new polling stations will also have to be able to accommodate election monitoring.

Currently, those voters are required to vote inside military barracks under the supervision of their superiors, making election monitoring there virtually impossible.

Parliament is not required to vote on or discuss the amendments. If lawmakers object, they will need to do so to the election commission directly; otherwise, the rules will go into effect in 90 days.

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“This will improve the public’s opinion of the Tatmadaw”, Dr Hla Moe, secretary of the Parliamentary Rights Committee and an NLD member, told Myanmar Now on Monday. “It is important for ensuring fair elections.”

But some lawmakers are already objecting.

“I think it’d be more practical to make current military polling stations more transparent”, said Thaung Aye, a Union Solidarity and Development Party lawmaker for Pyawbwe township. “Maybe the NLD and the military just don’t trust one another”

Spokespersons from both the election commission and the Tatmadaw declined to comment on the amendments.

At a press conference in September, Tatmadaw True News Information Committee Major-General Tun Tun Nyi said security and time constraints make it difficult for military members to vote outside of their barracks.”

“They work 24 hours in the military. It is difficult to come out and vote,” he said. “There are many difficulties for both the Tatmadaw and their families.”

Nyan Hlaing Lin

Nyan Hlaing Lin is Senior Reporter with Myanmar Now

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Locals blame junta official’s security team for Myingan shooting death of infant

Eyewitnesses accuse the armed guards stationed outside the home of local junta-appointed administrator of shooting a 29-year-old man, his baby daughter, and a passerby

Myanmar Now

Published on Aug 12, 2021

The deceased infant and her father, Nyein Chan, who was shot in the arm in the shooting (Supplied)

A shooting in the fourth ward of Myingyan, Mandalay Region on Thursday morning killed a one-year-old girl and injured her father and another passerby, according to local sources.

The identity of the perpetrators had not been confirmed at the time of reporting, but eyewitnesses accused the armed guards stationed outside the home of local junta-appointed administrator Tun Tun Oo—three doors down from the victims’ house—of firing the shots.

Locals said that Tun Tun Oo is known to carry a gun and to have three armed guards in front of his house at all times.

A resident of the ward said that two plainclothes men arrived outside the house of 29-year-old Nyein Chan, the infant girl’s father—about whom little was known at the time of reporting—and fired shots in front of the residence.

The eyewitness said he believed the men were members of the administrator’s security team.

“There were guards in front of Tun Tun Oo’s house—I think they were the ones who shot them. They were saying that they had to shoot them because they were ‘acting suspicious,’” he told Myanmar Now, adding that the men fled the scene on a motorbike.

Another resident said there were three young men on motorbikes near the would-be scene of the shooting at the time at which Tun Tun Oo was returning home from lunch. The resident said that the guards opened fire after accusing the men of being members of the anti-coup People’s Defence Force (PDF). However, it has been other local guerrilla groups—not the PDF—that has claimed responsibility for carrying out targeted assassinations of local junta officials in the township.

Nyein Chan, shot twice in the arm, and his one-year-old daughter, shot in the head and the stomach, were not the intended targets, the resident said. The infant died at the scene.

Another passerby named Tin Tin Mar was also shot in the leg, as she reportedly screamed and attempted to run away, according to the first witness.

Tin Tin Mar, Nyein Chan and the body of his daughter were brought to the local public hospital on Thursday, an official from the Myingyan-based Hands of Purity social services group said.

Shortly after the shooting, tension remained high in the ward as junta troops arrived at Tun Tun Oo’s house and began interrogating passersby, even forcing some to kneel and put their hands behind their heads.

Ward 4 residents said that as of Thursday afternoon, no arrests had been concerning the shooting.

The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child said on July 16 that a total of 75 children had been killed in Myanmar since the February 1 military coup. One of the youngest was a seven-year-old girl shot to death by junta soldiers while sitting in her father’s lap in Mandalay in late March.

Myanmar Now

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Junta relying on forced labour in Bago ‘guard duty’ scheme, residents say

Locals say a member of each household must work as a ‘guard’ for up to 12 hours for no pay at locations specified by the military council

Myanmar Now

Published on Aug 12, 2021

The junta carries out a deadly crackdown on a protest camp in Bago on April 9 (Photo: CJ)

The junta has forced residents of at least three wards in Bago to do labour as “guards” of locations specified by the military or face fines, locals told Myanmar Now.

Locals in the town’s Alin Yaung, Pon Nar Su and Nan Daw Yar wards said each household had been ordered by the military authorities to send a person to perform “guard duty” monthly for up to 12 hours with no pay.

A 24-year-old man in Alin Yaung said that ward residents are assigned to guard posts in a garage at a school occupied by soldiers, or at a Buddhist monastery.

The shifts are from 7am until 7pm or from 8pm until 5am in Alin Yaung ward.

“No one knows why we have been sent on guard duty,” he said.

The practice has been in place since mid-May, supervised by the 100-household administrator under the military coup council, the resident said. He noted that the previous administrator resigned shortly after the compulsory guard duties were put into effect.

“If a household did not want to carry out the enforced duties, they had to pay 5,000 kyat (US$3). Then the 100-household administrator had to find a substitute guard,” the Alin Yaung resident explained.

Locals have said that both income and even basic cash have been severely limited in the months since the coup, making the payment a hardship for many households.

A 30-year-old woman in Alin Yaung said that men are expected to carry out the guard duties, but in her household, where there are no men, she had to hire another local to pick up her compulsory shift.

“There was nothing to do. We have to go and sit there. It is pointless. Soldiers have been stationed in the school. It feels as if they are holding us hostage,” she said.

Residents of Pon Nar Su ward have also been forced to work as guards since mid-May, with six-hour overnight shifts from 10pm until 4am in groups of two to three people. Their designated post was originally outside the local free funeral services office, but more recently, another post was set up in front of the house of the ward administrator, a local man said.

“We have to keep watch and restrict access to the administrator’s house. We have to carry out the guard duties from a hut outside his property,” he explained.

If a resident fails to perform their duties, the fine in Pon Nar Su is 3,000 kyat or they must hire a substitute.

In Nan Daw Yar ward, residents were ordered to serve as overnight security guards from April until early July, but a resident of the area said that they were no longer being forced to carry out the duties.

Myanmar Now tried to contact the junta officials in Bago for comment on the allegations of forced labour, but the calls went unanswered.

Bago was the site of a deadly crackdown on anti-coup protesters by the junta on April 9, that left dozens of civilians dead.

An armed resistance formed nationwide, and young dissidents began forming People’s Defence Forces, which announced in May that they would carry out targeted attacks on junta officials and collaborators.

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Unidentified gunmen kill villager at Covid-19 checkpoint

Four villagers in Magway Region were being interrogated about a local resistance leader when one was shot and killed

Myanmar Now

Published on Aug 12, 2021

An anti-coup protest rally in Magway Region’s Myaing Township on August 8 (CJ)

A group of armed men killed a villager in Magway Region’s Myaing Township on Monday while interrogating residents of the village of Paik Thin about a local resistance leader.

The six men arrived by car at a Covid-19 checkpoint set up at the northern end of the village and detained four villagers who were there on guard duty, local sources told Myanmar Now.

With their hands tied behind their backs, the four villagers were beaten repeatedly as they were asked about Hsan Ko, a resident of Paik Thin who has taken a leading role in organizing anti-regime forces in the area.

Later, as the villagers were being forced into the car, one of them, 41-year-old Aung Zeya, attempted to flee and was shot dead by his pursuers, according to the brother of the victim.

The other three men—one of whom was the brother of Hsan Ko—were later released, according to residents.

“Aung Zeya ran away while the gunmen were trying to tie up Hsan Ko’s brother, Min Min. Three gunmen chased and shot him,” said Aung Zeya’s brother Win Naing, citing the released villagers.

He added that most local residents were sheltering inside their homes at the time of the incident due to the risk of Covid-19 infection and so were unable to identify the gunmen.

After an inspection by local police, Aung Zeya's body was taken to a morgue in Pakokku, a town about 40km away, for an autopsy. It was later sent back to Paik Thin for cremation, according to Win Naing.

Anti-coup activist Hsan Ko, 22, is the son of an army veteran who now serves as Paik Thin’s village administrator.

Despite his father’s background and current position, Hsan Ko and other members of his family are known to be members of Myanmar’s ousted ruling party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), according to local residents.

The home of one relative who had put up an NLD signpost was raided by the gunmen, one resident told Myanmar Now.

Paik Thin villagers said they believed the assailants were members of the pro-regime vigilante group Pyu Saw Htee, which has emerged in many parts of the country to counter anti-junta activities.Attempts to reach the Myaing police station for comment on the incident went unanswered.