Just two days ahead of the November-8 General Elections, an explosion rocked the Bago Region’s Election Sub-Commission Office yesterday.
No one was injured in the blast. It is found that the explosion aims to disrupt the general elections by frightening people.
There were some bomb threats, violations during the election campaign and there have been some complaints against advance voting these days. Investigations will be made into all cases in accordance with the law. The investigations will decide who attempted to disturb the general elections. It is not appropriate to judge before the Election Day that the ongoing general elections are not fair.
Any attempt to disrupt the general elections is intolerable and we are confident that our people would not fall into traps set by those who seek to disrupt the conducting of free and fair general elections.
According to a recent survey about risks which have the potential to disrupt the upcoming general elections, the COVID-19 pandemic posed a 46 per cent chance of disrupting the elections, while election campaigns were set at 13 per cent. The survey has shown that free and fair general elections can also be threatened by poor monitoring of the elections (4 per cent); by fake news, rumours and misinformation (3 per cent); by voters having insufficient voting education (3 per cent); by disruption caused by racism and misuse of religion (3 per cent) and by incorrect voting lists (2 per cent).
However, it has been found that the nearer we get to Election Day, the higher the occurrences of cases of voting frauds and disinformation in advance voting and disruptions caused by violation of election laws, and bombs threats.
It is prohibited to give speeches at meetings, along with the instigation, writing, distributing or using posters or attempting by other means to disturb the voting or election, as per Section 58 (d) of the Hluttaw Election Law. Whoever is found guilty of, or abetting this act, shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term not exceeding one year or with fines not exceeding one hundred thousand kyats, or both
Political parties and candidates have the right to compete in elections without harassment or intimidation.
The public is also urged to be on alert to hindrances happening during the election period that might disrupt the 2020 general elections.
GNLM
