After nearly a third of voters checked their personal information on the Chin State voter list, some 30,000 people applied to correct their personal information on the state’s voter list, add their names, or remove the names of the deceased, according to the state’s election commission.
More than 1,440 people have requested that they be added as eligible voters and more than 12,640 have asked that someone be removed, typically in the case of death. Some 16,000 people have asked that their name or identification number be corrected.
The discrepancies date back to a collection of names by the General Administration Department (GAD) in 2019, in which many people were allegedly left out.
“I think some people weren’t included in the voter list because they were away from their homes when we collected the population list,” Lin Kyaw, secretary of the Chin State Election Commission, told Khonumthung News. “Some people didn’t remove the names of dead people from family registration documents. Some people put their children’s names on the family registration documents even though they are working in foreign countries. That’s why some people were missing from our voter list.”
The Chin State Election Commission announced the first draft of the voter list in the state’s respective ward and village administration offices from July 25 until August 14.
The commission has said that there are a total of 342,142 eligible voters in Chin State, more than 110,450 of whom checked their names and personal information on the first draft of the list during the period in question.
Lin Kyaw said that the commission is continuing to scrutinize the application forms requesting changes to the voter list.
“If people are eligible to vote, we will put them on the eligible voter list. If people are not eligible to vote, we will remove them from the eligible voter list. We will also correct voters’ information Therefore, the numbers on the voter list will more or less change,” he explained.
Currently, GAD staff, respective ward and village election commission staff, and village headmen are checking people’s house by house regarding voter registration. The election commission will release the second draft of the voter list in October after necessary corrections have been issued.