Although everyone is entitled to election observance, permission could be granted to foreign-sponsored organizations only if they have registrations, the People’s Alliance for Credible Elections (PACE) has quoted the reply letter sent by the Union Election Commission (UEC) as saying.
The UEC letter dated August 21 says as per Section 27 of the association registration law, unregistered organizations cannot seek aid from any international government, organization or individual. It points out PACE is an unregistered organization.
PACE officials however criticized the reply letter for restricting the political rights of the citizens.
“We don’t oppose association registration. But their decision to grant permission for election monitoring and observance only if we have a registration is a barrier. Association registration has nothing to do with election observance. I assume they are different,” said Sai Ye Kyaw Swar Myint, executive of director of PACE.
Some law experts who helped draft the association registration law argue that the provisions of the law passed in 2014 require registration as associations wish and it is not a compulsory.
“Under this law, associations are official whether they have registered or not. When registered, they may have good dealings with government and receive assistance. For CSOs, they can or cannot register, as the law states,” said one advocate, U Htay.
Although the UEC informed on July 31 that PACE is barred from observing the upcoming election due to its lack of registration and acceptance of foreign aid. However, UEC member Myint Naing denied it in Nay Pyi Taw on August 14.
Sai Ye Kyaw Swar Myint said his association had applied for registration with the endorsement from UEC but expressed concern about failure to do some electoral procedures in the run-up to the election.
Founded in 2014, PACE, an election monitoring organization, used large manpower to observe the 2015 general election, the by-elections in 2017 and 2018 and the election for the Yangon City Development Committee members.
PACE is due to observe the 2020 general election scheduled on November 8 by deploying over 2,900 workers.
