Lack of Voter Education in Migrant Communities Driving Electoral Inequality Along Thai-Burma Border
Maggi Quadrini
Sayama Jasmine, a teacher from Yangon, Burma moved to the border town of Mae Sot, Thailand in 1994 when she was 26 years old. Now, nearly 30 years later she is closely watching Burma’s 2020 general election, set to take place on 8 November 2020. She’s never voted, but says she would if she knew how. 
Sayama Jasmine is one of approximately 3 million migrant workers from Burma living in Thailand with at least 50,000 in Mae Sot alone. Many of those working in thecountryrepresent different ethnic groups who crossed the border at different periods to flee conflict or to pursue economic opportunities, with the hopes of improving their livelihood. As a teacher, Sayama Jasmine provides Burmese lessons to children living in her neighbourhood. Her self-run school started with just a few students coming over in the evenings to study in her humble, wooden home, surrounded with posters displaying the alphabet and vocabulary. Sometimes, she says proudly,there are up to50 children at one time sitting in the small, modest space.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, she was returning to Yangon every two years to visit her friends and family. Since Thailand closed its borders in March, she has been following Burma’s election through various news sources, predominantly by listening to BBC in Burmese.
The worsening human rights situation in Burma has led to mass voter discrimination. Most recently, after the Union Election Commission (UEC) canceled the election in over 50 townships; civilians and candidates expressed ‘shock and anger’, as the decision strips over 1 million voters of the right to participate. The UEC is considering more cancellations amid suspected military pressure, from whom they receive significant oversight. This has led to even more worries among civilians who have the most to lose in political warfare.
The 32-year-old Wandi Oo, a social worker in Mae Sot originally from a small village southeast of the Thai-Burma border, says she also has no plan to vote because she hasn’t received any information about how to do so.
“The words: ‘vote’, ‘election’ and ‘politics’ were always such unfamiliar terms to me,” she says. “My whole life, I’ve never been able to learn about what politics is and means.”
She suspects this is not an accident.
“Most people in Burma consider politics to be a boring subject because we were never taught in school.”
Wandi Oo says there was never any incentive to participate in politics because of the ongoing conflict and the lack of job opportunities.
Wandi Oo moved to live in Umpiem Mai, one of the nine refugee camps along the border in 2009 to study in an English immersion programme. Since graduating in 2015, she’s worked with several human rights organisations in Mae Sot. Reflecting on her reasons not to vote, she says she wishes more of an effort was made for migrants to learn and participate in the electoral process.
“I see some people voting but I don’t know where that is, or how their vote is counted. It would be good if the government put more effort into voter education, then things might be different,” she says.
By contrast, Yamone, age 36, a young woman working at a Burmese human rights organisation was able to cast a vote from Mae Sot in the 2020 election. The steps included an excessive amount of paperwork and proof of citizenship. Originally from Rakhine State, Yamone worked for the Burmese government in Yangon before moving to Mae Sot 14years ago. Speaking of her experience doing accounting for the government, she says there was a lot of executive censorship on issues of human rights and of news that was critical of the administration’s performance.
Since working in rights-based advocacy work, she is much more concerned about politics. Even though she was supported by her organisation to vote, she has empathy for others in the migrant community who don’t have the same support or access. The Burmese Embassy sent her an application to fill out, which required her to send an excessive number of documents. Yamone and her friend both filled out applications, a process which took half a day. After she submitted, she was informed that there was an error in the system, which required her to re-send her supporting documents to ensure her vote was counted that same day. Yamone says she recognises that she had the flexibility to vote and adjust for errors when that likely would not have been the case for a migrant worker who would need to access the Internet, copy the required documentation and then send it. They also might not be expecting problems with their applications, and subsequently may not follow up.
In Mae Sot, Yamone says there is a serious need for voter education among the migrant community. “It needs to be easier for us all to vote. COVID-19 has made it harder for those who do want to vote because they’re less motivated to go out and find information,” she says.
Inside Burma she worries that the mass voter disenfranchisement will disempower local communities. Reflecting on her experience working in human rights, she has closely monitored the violations against candidates and communities rooted in discrimination and the long denial of rights and freedoms to specific ethnic groups.
“Those who are living in bigger cities in more urban areas will get a fair vote. However, those in remote villages who may be living in conflict areas won’t have the same rights to vote, which is extremely unfair,” she says.
Ultimately, Yamone says the Burma Army is the biggest barrier to electoral reform and democratic changes inside Burma. The 2008-military drafted Constitution gives unabashed military control to the Ministry of Defense, Home and Border Affairs, in addition to a quarter of the seats being reserved for them in Parliament.
She says a decrease in military control is what is truly needed to stop civil war and improve the rights of citizens in the country. Until this happens, she says it doesn’t really matter who wins the election.
Sayama Jasmine is also doubtful of a fair process.
“I don’t understand all the political games,” she says. “I don’t want to have high hopes for any kind of changes because we are used to being disappointed. The country cannot be at peace under the 2008 Constitution.”
She believes that the government is not working for her, so has to work for herself. She says she wants a government that protects the right to speak out, a government that is not racist and upholds democratic values.
Wandi Oo feels more information on voting overall would make everything easier to understand and participate. “There’s a feeling that even those who vote won’t matter or be counted.”
Karel Galang, Program Officer at the Asia Democracy Network, an organisation working to promote and advance democratisation and democratic governance says the relationship between elections, democracy and migrant workers is one that requires citizens to participate in public affairs, be represented and heard.
“This will ensure that public officials are aware of their conditions and that public policies reflective of their needs are created. These rights are inalienable ones, and do not get voided once a person decides to become a migrant worker. It is imperative that governments perform their duty to ensure that migrants can effectively and meaningfully exercise their voting rights,” he says.
Galang adds that governments can facilitate the exercise of migrants’ voting rights by adopting an electoral framework and electoral processes that allow for alternative voting methods. These include out-of-constituency voting processes, using mail-in ballots, or voting technologies.
“By ensuring the inclusion of migrant workers in electoral processes, states are making a positive step towards inclusive political processes,” says Galang.
For Yamone, she says, “As a citizen, I had to vote. As a woman, we are now seeing voting is a shared responsibility and trying to fill gaps by participating in the election.”