Mandalay Residents ‘Pressured to Vote’ in Myanmar Junta’s Election

Many Mandalay residents say they were pressured into voting in the final phase of the junta-organized election on Sunday, with some local administrators personally dragging them from their home to the polling station.

Families with draft-age members cast their ballots out of fear of forced conscription, while others who had moved away from the townships where they were registered got phone calls to come back urgently.

In Patheingyi, Mahlaing and Myittha townships, which surround Mandalay city, local authorities arranged vehicles to ferry residents to polling stations. Patheingyi also saw loudhailers deployed hectoring people to vote, as did the inner-city township of Chanmyathazi, while ward and village administrators went house-to-house pressuring residents.