Media also reported that in Yangon's Hlegu township, a USDP representative was found providing a fake stamp to elderly voters to mark their ballots, which resulted in four ballots being rejected 20. The offender was charged under Article 59 of the election laws. In a separate incident, two voters in Ayeyarwady region’s Pathein township reportedly used their own fake stamps to mark their ballots on 31 October. They were given a chance to vote again before the incident was reported to the district sub-commission. Also in Ayeyarwady region, a school teacher was charged for casting her ballots twice in two different village tracts on 30 and 31 October, according to the UEC 21. Many advance polling stations failed to enforce COVID-19-related guidelines. Voters, poll workers, and police in most of the locations visited by ANFREL were not practising social distancing, sanitising their hands, or properly wearing face masks. Few polling staff wore hand gloves and face shields while on duty, as required in the SOP issued by the MOHS. Given that the rationale for extending advance voting to all voters over the age of 60 was to protect them from potential infection at polling stations on Election Day, it is dubious whether the polling process recorded by ANFREL observers would have helped mitigating the risk of COVID-19 transmission after all. Additionally, the conduct of advance voting from house to house was not always welcomed by voters due to fear of COVID-19, although the mechanism was supposed to reduce the risk of virus infection. For instance, many households in Northern Shan State’s Lashio township refused to let poll workers visit their houses, leading to missed opportunities for elderly voters to exercise their voting rights from home. Overall, ANFREL wishes to commend the UEC for implementing measures to allow advance voting for the elderly who are particularly vulnerable to COVID-19 infections in areas where stay-at-home orders were imposed, or with high population density. While the implementation of health guidelines in the advance polling centres was found to be inconsistent, the UEC has continued and even expanded its efforts to reach out to the most vulnerable voters and enfranchise them to make the 2020 general elections as inclusive as possible. Advance voting represents a great logistical challenge for election officials, and although the process suffers from the uneven implementation of rules and regulations, sometimes from one village to another, it still served its purpose remarkably well and should hopefully improve in future electoral cycles if additional training and resources are made available. 20 https://www.irrawaddy.com/elections/myanmar-party-poll-monitors-complain-of-election-law-violationsduring-early-voting.html 21 https://www.gnlm.com.mm/announcement-on-legal-actions-taken-against-two-women-over-electoral-fraudin-advance-voting/ 16