Yangon's electoral rolls are still short 1 million domestic migrants, according to the regional election commission’s count. Those hoping to jump on the election bandwagon are only being given a very narrow window to amend their absence on the list, however, with officials advising applications to correct the errors be sent in by October 10.

“We are now in the final stage of compiling the [voter] list, and are collecting Form 3(a) for additions. The number of migrant voters included will depend on their eagerness to join the list,” said U Ko Ko, the head of the Yangon Region election commission.

The 1 million voters the local commission estimates are missing from Yangon are concentrated in the city’s eastern district, where some 500,000 temporary residents, squatters and migrants reside, according to an estimate made by cross-checking household lists with immigration records.

“Many migrants are not included in the recently released voter lists, so we received a lot of complaints and blame. But actually, our collection of migrant names is the final step. People who don’t know our voter collection system are unfairly blaming us,” U Ko Ko told The Myanmar Times. Those who have lived in a ward for at least 180 days can ask an administrator for a letter of recommendation, which the election commission will accept in lieu of national ID and household registrations.

While U Ko Ko had ready explanations for continuing errors on the list, the National League for Democracy chair in Yangon, U Myint Htay, said the commission was amiss in its disorganised, haphazard and potentially political collection of the list. “Our central campaigning committee is arranging to meet with the Union Election Commission to discuss the many problems with the voter list,” he said.

In Yangon Region, there are officially about 7.3 million people, of whom just under 4.2 million have been included on the voter rolls. U Ko Ko said the number will likely increase after all the forms for additions have been processed.