“Advance Voting Irregularities Reported in Insein Township Following Visit by Military Leader.”

During the morning of January 11, when Phase Two of the election was held, Myanmar’s military leader Min Aung Hlaing visited Insein Township, Yangon Region. According to reports, the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) won the election there with 240 advance ballots that were submitted without Form 13. At Polling Station No. 1, located at Basic Education High School No. 6, Ywama West Ward, Insein Township, advance ballots arrived without the required Form 13. Despite objections, the Election Commission classified these ballots as valid and counted them. Other political parties—excluding the USDP—objected to the use of these advance ballots without Form 13. However, the Election Commission continued to accept and use them, according to a candidate who submitted a formal complaint. “The situation was like this: the advance ballot box arrived. Polling station officials requested the required documents. They waited for one and a half to two hours, but the Form 13, which must fully accompany advance ballots, never arrived. The polling officials said they had requested it, but it was never delivered. Because of this, we determined that the advance ballots did not comply with the rules and procedures. All our parties jointly documented the findings and submitted an objection letter.” According to Election Commission law, when advance ballots are submitted, ballot boxes containing ballot papers must be delivered together with Form 13 (the advance voter list) to the relevant polling station officials before 6:00 a.m. on election day, prior to the opening of polling stations. Similar incidents occurred not only at the polling station in Ywama West Ward near Insein GTI, but also at Basic Education Middle School No. 23 near Hledan Junction, where advance ballots without Form 13 reportedly arrived as well. U Hla Htay from the People’s Party stated: “In Insein, advance ballots arrived at polling stations without Form 13. According to procedure, advance voting is only permitted when Form 13 is included. But those authorized Form 13 documents were missing, as were the lists of advance voters. Because of this, our People’s Party submitted objections. It happened at one polling station already, and we are continuing to file objections at additional stations.” Despite these objections, after polling stations closed at 4:00 p.m., the Election Commission counted all 240 advance ballots that lacked proper documentation during the vote tallying process. A candidate explained another issue: “Another problem arose when the Election Commission decided to open a ballot box containing 139 votes. However, the polling station official refused because there was no Form 13 in their possession. The situation ended like this—since all parties had already left, we had no choice but to follow the Commission’s decision. We did submit formal complaints.” After Phase One of the military-organized election, political parties met with the Union Election Commission and raised concerns about advance voting. However, these efforts were unsuccessful, and advance ballots without Form 13—previously considered invalid—were reclassified as valid votes, leading to a victory for the USDP. As a result, several political parties questioned the transparency of advance voting, arguing that the USDP has taken the lead primarily due to advance ballots. The Union Solidarity and Development Party, which transformed into a political party and entered elections in 2010, also has a history of winning past elections through advance ballots, including the 2010 general election. According to analysis by Data for Myanmar, a research group monitoring election results, data from 81 townships in Phase One shows that USDP candidates consistently received significantly more advance votes per candidate than those from other parties. Other political parties have criticized this overwhelming advantage gained through advance voting and have submitted letters to the military coup leader calling for transparency and fairness. The issue was also raised prominently in recent meetings between political parties and the Election Commission. After claiming electoral fraud in the 2020 general election, the military—led by Min Aung Hlaing—seized state power. Since then, the country has been engulfed in armed conflict for five consecutive years. The National Unity Government (NUG) and resistance forces have declared the military’s election to be an illegal and sham election. The United Nations and the international community have also stated that the election is neither free nor fair. Meanwhile, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim has stated that Malaysia will not rush to recognize any entity that emerges victorious from this election.