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Myanmar Releases Voter Lists for Upcoming Elections


FILE - Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, right, submits her documents for the upcoming general poll, election commission office, Yangon, Myanmar, July 29, 2015.
FILE - Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, right, submits her documents for the upcoming general poll, election commission office, Yangon, Myanmar, July 29, 2015.

The election commission in Myanmar, also known as Burma, has announced its second round of voter lists for the upcoming general elections, the first since decades of military rule ended in 2011.

The voter rolls were distributed in constituencies across the country Monday. Hein Lin Htet, an election official in Mon State, told VOA that citizens who do not find their names on the list must act soon.

"According to the law it allows voters to complain within 14 days to [make a] change," he said.

Baby Maung, a voter in Rangoon, was one of the voters that noticed her name was missing.

"My name is not in the list. They told me to check in the appendix, but still it is not in there. So they told me to fill up in the Form No. 3 to apply again," she said.

The polls will be the first general election since a nominally civilian government was installed in 2011. But with the military still firmly in control of the process, there is widespread speculation over whether the election will be free and fair.

Last week, NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi called for vigorous international monitoring of her country's November general elections.

Her party won 43 seats in parliamentary by-elections in 2012. But the last time the NLD took part in a national election was in 1990, when it scored a landslide victory that was ignored by the country's military rulers.

This report was produced in collaboration with the VOA Burmese service.

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