The Tatmadaw Information Team claimed thousands of ballots cast could be fraudulent during the national election in Chin State’s Falam, Thangtlang and Tongzang townships.
The group run by the Burma Army claimed to have found 12,992 overlapping and suspicious ballots in the three townships.
On January 8, it said there were 3,843 suspicious ballots in Falam Township. A day later, it claimed that in the constituencies where its soldiers voted there were 5768 suspect ballots in Thangtlang Township and 3,381 in Tongzan Township.
In many cases, the information team said that voters’ names were spelled incorrectly even though they registered with national ID. It also alleges over one hundred names were listed in the voting registry up to three times, which in theory could allow multiple ballots to be cast under the same name.
At the beginning of January, the Tatmadaw Information Team alleged there were over 20,000 possible fraudulent votes cast in Hakha, Tedim, and Matupi Township.
Khin Aung Lane, the secretary of Thangtlang Township Election Commission (EC), denied the Burma Army’s claims of fraudulent voting, while admitting the election process in Chin State was far from perfect. Because a registry is created for every village and ward in the state, there could be overlap if a voter moved to another location and their name wasn’t deleted from their original village or ward, he said.
Thang Hauk Lang, secretary of Tongzan township EC, also challenged the Tatmadaw’s allegations of fraud, at the same time pointing out that any complaints about the election should have been lodged within 45 days of the November 8 election day. Until now, no-one has objected to the results, he told Khonumthung News.