BURMESE VOTERS went to the polls for the first time in 20 years yesterday, but there was little evidence of enthusiasm among the electorate for the carefully choreographed election that assures parties backed by the military junta an easy victory.
Witnesses said turnout was low and there were irregularities in how the voting was carried out. Contesting the election are two military-backed parties running virtually unopposed, the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) and its closest rival, the National Unity Party (NUP).
Carefully contrived election rules mean there was no chance a pro-democracy group might stage an upset. Human rights groups have urged the international community to reject the Burmese election as a sham, and instead focus their efforts on convincing the regime to enter into meaningful dialogue with democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi (currently under house arrest), and ethnic groups at the border.
“It will result in nothing more than a change of clothing for the regime, from military uniforms to civilian suits,” Christian Solidarity Worldwide’s East Asia Team Leader Benedict Rogers. He said the election was merely a charade designed to perpetuate military rule and protect junta leader Than Shwe, his family and his allies in power.
Armed riot police guarded polling booths and some soldiers patrolled the streets, although the military presence was kept low for polling day itself. Speaking yesterday to a group of college students in Mumbai during his Asian tour, US president Barack Obama said the elections were “anything but free and fair”. Yesterday’s election was the first election since 1990, when Ms Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy beat the army-backed party in a landslide. The junta simply ignored that result, and neither the Nobel laureate nor her party was allowed to take part in yesterday’s election.
Ms Suu Kyi has spent 15 of the past 21 years under house arrest at her Rangoon villa and she urged supporters to boycott the poll, saying she “would not dream” of taking part. Her house arrest expires next Saturday and if she is released, it could prove a major boost to pro-democracy forces.
The junta is taking no chances of this election not going their way and has placed a ban on foreign media and outside election monitors and tightened state censorship. The incoming government is expected to introduce a new constitution that will guarantee the military 25 per cent of the parliamentary seats, as well as immunity for past, present and future crimes.
There are over 2,100 political prisoners still in jail, rights groups say, many of whom would have stood in a free election. The junta stopped voting in 3,400 villages in ethnic minority areas and has increased its military presence in the countryside. About 1.5 million of the country’s 59 million people have thus been disenfranchised.