Civil Servants to be Probed for Voting against USDP

15 November 2010: The Chairman of the Chin State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) ex-Gen. Hung Ngai has ordered an investigation into how each member of the civil servants voted during the November 7 elections after the junta-backed Union Solidarity Development Party (USDP) lost all contested seats in three Townships of northern Chin State.

Summoning a meeting of all department heads in Chin State’s capital Hakha on November 12, Hung Ngai ordered each government department in Chin State to look into how each staff member of the civil servants had voted during the general elections.

Speaking to the Chinland Guardian, the head of a government department in Hakha who cannot be named for security reasons said, ” In the case of advance votes, the ward election commission official will be responsible to look into the civil servants vote, but the heads of each department have also been tasked to investigate whether or not their staff members had voted for the USDP on election day.”

Asked how the probe will be conducted, the official said, “The voter ID number on each ballot paper will be cross-referenced in the case of the advance votes. But each government staff will also be individually ‘interviewed’ by their respective heads of the department to ascertain which party they had voted for.”

While their has been no specific mention of what kinds of penalty might be rendered against those who are found to have voted against the USDP, one official working for the Ward Peace and Development Council said, “Demotion at the very least.The USDP’s loss in Hakha and Thantlang made him [Hung Ngai] very furious. It was quite a deafening scolding we had to go through during that meeting.’

Two ethnic Chin parties had swept all contested seats in Falam, Hakha and Thantlang Township, denying junta-backed party of any parliamentary seats up for grabs in the three townships. The Chin National Party (CNP) won all contested seats in Hakha and Thantlang, while the Chin Progressive Party (CPP) did the same in Falam Township.

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Chinland Guardian