64 candidates in Arakan forfeit deposits after failing to cross vote-getting threshold

By Min Tun 15 Dec 2020

Min Tun | DMG 
15 December 2020, Sittwe 

A total of 64 candidates who contested the November 8 election in Arakan State will lose their K300,000 ($216) insurance premium because they did not reach a required votes threshold, according to figures from the Arakan State election subcommission. 

A total of 154 election candidates contested last month’s vote in Arakan State, 64 of whom did not reach the designated threshold of 12.25% of votes cast. The 90 candidates who received above 12.25% will get their insurance premiums back in full.  

“If a candidate receives 12.25% of votes, he/she can get back the premium according to the law,” said U Khin Maung Oo, secretary of the Sittwe District election subcommission.  

Election law stipulates that the insurance premiums of election candidates who do not receive 12.25% of votes in the election shall be seized as state funds.   

The candidates put up K300,000 for their premiums at branches of the Myanma Economic Bank when they registered as election candidates. 

Arakan State Hluttaw lawmaker U Naing Kyway Aye, a National League for Democracy representative from Thandwe Township, said the NLD candidates who did not hit the vote threshold could not overcome the nationalist spirit aroused at the ballot box in many Arakan State voters. 

“They see the NLD as a Bamar party and they have a bias to vote for their people’s party,” he said. 

U Hla Myint, a spokesperson for the Sittwe-based Arakan League for Democracy (ALD), said: “The candidates did not receive the required votes because the people did not vote.”

ALD candidates contested in every constituency in the six townships of southern Arakan State, but the party did not win a single seat in the election.  

Those losing their premiums are 18 independent candidates; 12 from the NLD; seven each from the ALD and Union Solidarity and Development Party; six each from the Arakan Front Party and Rakhine State National United Party; three from the Union Betterment Party; two each from the Arakan National Party and Kaman National Progressive Party; and one from the Chin National Party.