The electronic voting machines (EVMs) that the military council is preparing to use in their illegal sham election are systematically designed to easily violate the basic human rights of each citizen in Myanmar. The military council led by Min Aung Hlaing is not a legitimate government with the authority to conduct elections, nor does it have the capability to conduct nationwide elections. Their actions constitute an illegal and fraudulent exercise merely labeled as an election, and they will employ various dishonest methods to achieve their desired results.
The machine system consists of three parts: the Ballot Unit (BU), Control Unit (CU), and Verification Unit (VU). While normal voting allows voters to cast secret ballots, these machines can record individual voting patterns and identify which party each person voted for. Additionally, there is a risk that results can be manipulated through the control unit. Using these machines violates people’s rights to vote freely and secretly, and creates risks of subsequent pressure and intimidation against voters.
In normal free and fair elections, voters can mark paper ballots in private and those ballots are counted publicly in front of observers. However, with the military council’s machines, votes entered into the ballot unit are transmitted to the control unit, which then sends data to the verification unit for tabulation. This creates multiple points where results could potentially be altered. The machines are clearly designed to violate voter privacy and enable manipulation of results.
The military council is preparing to conduct their sham election using these machines as tools for deception while suppressing political parties with public support. Although the public shows no interest in participating in this fraudulent exercise, there are concerns that people may be forced to vote at gunpoint or be forcibly brought out to vote, constituting further human rights violations. These machines and the entire electoral exercise represent a systematic effort to violate people’s fundamental rights while creating a false appearance of legitimacy.
