Fishermen who are at sea fishing before the polling date said that they suffered grievances in losing their voting rights for casting absentee ballots. Similarly, some fishermen lost their voting rights in casting absentee ballots in 2015 general elections too as they had to leave for fishing blocks before the scheduled polling date and who had already been at sea before that date.

Those fishermen staged protest demonstration and demanded the right to cast absentee ballots in 2015 general elections and they got that right, these fishermen said.

Currently fishermen who were either already at sea or just arrived back could not manage to group together to demand their voting rights for absentee ballots so they are not in a position to stage a demonstration demanding their voting rights.

There are nearly 1,250 fishing trawlers in offshore fishing in Taninghatyi Region and over 25,000 fishermen.