Union Election Commission

The Union Election Commission (Burmese: ပြည်ထောင်စု ရွေးကောက်ပွဲ ကော်မရှင်, abbreviated UEC) is the national level electoral commission of Myanmar (Burma), responsible for organising and overseeing elections in Burma, as well as vetting parliamentary candidates and political parties.[1]

Union Election Commission (UEC)
ပြည်ထောင်စု ရွေးကောက်ပွဲ ကော်မရှင်
Commission overview
Formed8 March 2010 (2010-03-08)
JurisdictionMyanmar (Burma)
HeadquartersNaypyidaw
Commission executive
Websiteuec.gov.mm

Origins

The Union Election Commission is mandated by the Union Election Commission Law, enacted on 8 March 2010.[2]

Members

The UEC's members are appointed by the government, and must meet the following qualifications:[3]

  • 50 years of age or older
  • a good public reputation, as determined by the government
  • dignity, integrity and experience
  • loyalty to the State and its citizens
  • not affiliated to any political parties
  • not hold any office or draw compensation as such

2021-present members

On 2 February 2021, the State Administrative Council, the military regime, appointed military-aligned members to the UEC:[4]

  1. Thein Soe, Chairman[5]
  2. Thaung Tin, Member[5]
  3. Than Tun, Member[5]
  4. U Kyauk, Member[5]
  5. Aung Saw Win, Member[5]
  6. Than Win, Member[5]

2016-2020 members

The UEC's current members, appointed by the President Htin Kyaw on 30 March 2016.

  1. Hla Thein (Chairman)
  2. Aung Myint (Member)
  3. Soe Yae (Member)
  4. Tun Khin (Member)
  5. Hla Tint (Member)

Inaugural members

The UEC appointed by the State Peace and Development Council after 2010 election were:[1][6]

  1. Tin Aye (Chairman)
  2. Myint Naing (Member)
  3. Aung Myint (Member)
  4. Dr. Myint Kyi (Member)
  5. Win Kyi (Member)
  6. Nyunt Tin (Member)
  7. Win Ko (Member)
  8. Tin Tun (Secretary)

Following were appointed as additional members of Union Election Commission later.[7]

  1. N Zaw Naung
  2. Sai Kham Win
  3. Saw Ba Hlaing
  4. Ha Kee
  5. Dr. Mg Mg Kyi
  6. Sai Non Taung
  7. Sai Htun Thein and
  8. Dr. Sai San Win

List of chairperson
  1. Thein Soe (8 March 2010 – 30 March 2011)
  2. Tin Aye (30 March 2011 – 30 March 2016)
  3. Hla Thein (30 March 2016 – 2 February 2021)
  4. Thein Soe (2 February 2021 – present)

Controversy

The UEC has been criticised for its powers to abolish elections in conflict areas.[8] The UEC's first chairman was Thein Soe, a former major-general, an appointment that was derided by media.[9] On 18 February 2011, Tin Aye, a former lieutenant-general and member of the State Peace and Development Council, was appointed by the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw, to replace Thein Soe.[10]

It has also been criticised by various advocacy groups and the United Nations for its lack of independence and impartiality, in its handling of recent elections.[11] The UN has also noted the UEC's failure to follow up on electoral complaints, including voting procedures.[12]

References
  1. "Election Commission". Mizzima Election 2010. Mizzima. Retrieved 27 March 2012.
  2. "Situation of human rights in Myanmar" (PDF). Report of the Secretary-General. United Nations General Assembly. 14 September 2010.
  3. "Union Election Commission Law" (PDF). New Light of Myanmar. 8 March 2010. Retrieved 27 March 2012.
  4. "Election 2020 | Myanmar's Coup Leaders Name a New Union Election Commission". The Irrawaddy. 3 February 2021. Retrieved 3 February 2021.
  5. "ပြည်ထောင်စုသမ္မတမြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော် နိုင်ငံတော်စီမံအုပ်ချုပ်ရေးကောင်စီ အမိန့်အမှတ်(၇/၂၀၂၁) ၁၃၈၂ ခုနှစ်၊ ပြာသိုလပြည့်ကျော် ၆ ရက် ၂၀၂၁ ခုနှစ်၊ ဖေဖော်ဝါရီလ ၂ ရက် ပြည်ထောင်စုရွေးကောက်ပွဲကော်မရှင်ဥက္ကဋ္ဌနှင့်အဖွဲ့ဝင်များ ခန့်အပ်တာဝန်ပေးခြင်း". Tatmadaw Information Team (in Burmese). Retrieved 3 February 2021.
  6. "Profiles of Union Election Commission Members". Burma Election 2010. The Irrawaddy. 23 March 2010. Retrieved 27 March 2012.
  7. "Union Election Commission". www.uecmyanmar.org. Retrieved 18 November 2015.
  8. "Myanmar junta to hand-pick election body". AFP. 8 March 2010. Retrieved 27 March 2012.
  9. "Burma laws condemned as a 'mockery' of democracy". Angola Press. 11 March 2010.
  10. Shwe Yinn Mar Oo (21 February 2011). "Former MP to lead commission". Myanmar Times. Retrieved 27 March 2012.
  11. "Burma's by-elections: still short of international standards". Alternative Asean Network on Burma. 2012. Retrieved 27 March 2012.
  12. "Situation of human rights in Myanmar". Sixty-sixth session Third Committee: United Nations General Assembly. 28 October 2011. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
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