DAWEI — Residents in the Kanbauk area of Dawei, home to the Mawrawaddy Naval Base Headquarters, report that military personnel are personally conducting door-to-door inspections of voter lists and pressuring civilians to vote.

Kanbauk, located in Yebyu Township, is scheduled to participate in the second phase of the junta’s election on January 11. According to locals, junta soldiers arrived in the wards of the Kanbauk village tract in a convoy of three vehicles and conducted voter list verifications for three consecutive days, from January 5 to January 7.

Residents stated that for the first two days, they were summoned to central gathering points, including local restaurants and community halls (Dhammayone), to verify their registration. By the third day, the operation escalated to house-to-house inspections to confirm residents possessed voter identification certificates.

“On the first night, we were called to a local restaurant late at night to check the voter list. The next day, they gathered people at community halls,” said a local man from Kanbauk. “After that, they came door-to-door to check if we had the documents they issued and told us we must come to vote.”

Eyewitnesses noted a significant shift from previous administrative procedures: no civilian staff were involved in these inspections. Instead, the teams consisted solely of soldiers from the Mawrawaddy Naval Base and a single police officer from the Kanbauk police station.

Locals expressed fear during these house visits, noting that soldiers were fully armed while demanding that residents cast their ballots. This has fueled growing anxiety that high-pressure tactics will intensify on election day.

“Even for a simple list check, they are brandishing guns,” said a local woman. “We can’t say they won’t do the same on election day. They will likely follow their usual pattern of closing roads and cutting off the internet.”

This marks a departure from November 2025, when a similar census in Kanbauk was conducted by non-local civilian staff with military personnel providing only perimeter security.

Kanbauk is part of Yebyu Township, one of three townships—alongside Kyunsu and Tanintharyi—included in the second phase of the junta’s election in the Tanintharyi Region.

Voting will not be region-wide. According to the Election Commission’s announcement, polling will be limited to five specific village tracts within the sub-district—areas that fall strictly within the operational reach of the Mawrawaddy Naval Base and its armed Pyu Saw Htee militias.