approval 13. Proper investigations into the cause of these logistical errors should be conducted to prevent such incidents in the future. Over 70,000 eligible overseas voters cast their ballots at 45 Myanmar embassies and consulates around the globe from 24 September to 27 October. In Thailand and Malaysia, demands to open more polling stations to accommodate migrant workers far away from their diplomatic representations were denied due to public health concerns amid the COVID-19 pandemic 14. Myanmar nationals residing in the southern provinces of Thailand and East Malaysia met difficulties to vote, since the only polling stations were located in Bangkok, Chiang Mai, and Kuala Lumpur. The limited number of polling stations also led to long queues: advance voters in Bangkok interviewed by ANFREL reported waiting times of up to ten hours. Some embassies took measures in consequence to accommodate more voters. For instance, the embassies in Malaysia and South Korea extended advance voting by one day 15 and the embassy in Singapore extended voting hours by one hour daily 16. Within Myanmar, out-of-constituency advance voting for members of the military and their families, students, detainees, inpatients, and civil servants took place from 8 to 21 October. The voting process was conducted by the respective institutions instead of the UEC election sub-commissions. ANFREL was unable to observe the out-of-constituency voting process due to logistical constraints. After the voting period ended, the election sub-commission in Yangon’s Dagon township received 58 military personnel’s ballots in unsealed envelopes and initially decided not to count these votes 17. The UEC later overturned the decision and decided to include those ballots in the counting 18. It has to be noted that advance voting for the 2020 general elections started as early as 24 September, but the announcements of election postponements in certain areas of Myanmar only came on 16 and 27 October, which nullified the votes by advance voters from the affected areas. Regrettably, the disqualification of nearly 1,200 candidates in October for various reasons also rendered any advance votes cast for them invalid after the fact. In-Constituency Advance Voting Election observers and candidate agents were given the opportunity to observe advance voting in the country. ANFREL observers reported that advance voting procedures did not consistently adhere to UEC guidelines and polling staff did not always seem adequately trained. For instance, polling staff would sometimes hand out all three ballots at once to voters, ballot boxes were not always properly sealed, or glue was not provided for voters to seal the envelopes containing their ballots. There were also numerous complaints about the quality of the envelopes that were provided. However, the UEC promptly addressed some of these issues and announced on 30 October that ballots in unsealed 13 https://www.irrawaddy.com/elections/myanmars-election-body-faces-crisis-confidence-ahead-election.html https://www.irrawaddy.com/elections/many-myanmar-migrants-in-thailand-to-be-denied-vote-as-extrapolling-stations-ruled-out.html 15 https://www.irrawaddy.com/elections/myanmar-embassies-malaysia-south-korea-add-extra-votingdays.html 16 https://www.mmtimes.com/news/myanmar-embassy-extends-voting-hour-accommodate-more-voterssingapore.html 17 https://www.irrawaddy.com/elections/myanmar-militarys-advance-votes-discounted-violating-electorallaw.html 18 https://elevenmyanmar.com/news/uec-decides-to-count-unsealed-envelopes 14 13