Some 100 voters in Tachileik, eastern Shan State, were asked to return to the polling station and re-cast their votes after it was discovered that they had been given ballots for the wrong township on Sunday.
The voters, who were voting in Burma’s general election at Polling Station 1 in Mae Khong ward, were initially and mistakenly given ballots for Pekhon Township in southern Shan State, Nang Pin Tip, the Shan Nationalities League for Democracy (SNLD) candidate for Tachileik Township’s Constituency 1, told SHAN.
“I’ve heard that the election commission will allow them to re-cast their ballots. They will be allowed to cast their ballots at the polling station until 7:00 p.m.,” she said.
If the voters don’t return to the polling station, their previous votes will be rendered invalid.
Nang Pin Tip said that other SNLD members caught the error because they were on-site also voting.
“If our party members hadn’t been casting ballots in that polling station, nobody would have realized [the error],” she explained. “I don’t know what will happen. I am worried about it. This is a weakness of the election commission.”
