This closed and tightly controlled nation is holding its first election in 20 years on Sunday, a process that was expected to cement military rule behind a civilian facade but that opened the door slightly to possible shifts in the dynamics of power.
Though the Constitution guarantees the military a leading role in the state apparatus, this will be the first civilian government in the former Burma since a military coup in 1962. With votes being tabulated locally, it was not known if results would be announced Sunday or later.
The appearance of electoral legitimacy and civilian institutions may make it easier for Myanmar’s neighbors to embrace what has been a pariah, but it was unlikely by itself to ease a policy of isolation and economic sanctions among Western nations.
Voters were electing a 665-member, two-chamber national Parliament and 14 regional Parliaments. A total of 25 percent of those seats will be reserved for the military, and several senior military officials have resigned to run as civilians. Military officers are to head the key Ministries of Interior, Defense and Border Affairs, and the commander in chief of the armed forces will have power to take control of the country in times of emergency.
Thirty-seven parties were on the ballot, but the military appeared to have taken pains to assure the victory of parties it supports by severely restricting campaigns, setting high fees for candidacy, censoring political statements, controlling the media, excluding voters in unstable ethnic minority areas and barring outside election monitors. Hundreds of the strongest potential opposition candidates were in prison or under house arrest.
Each candidate was given 15 minutes on national television, but the censored, pretaped speeches had the feel of confessions at a Stalinist show trial.
Kurt M. Campbell, the United States’ assistant secretary of state for East Asia and Pacific affairs, said in Washington in September that it appeared the vote would lack international legitimacy, but that it might create “new players, new power relationships, new structures inside the country” that would bear watching.
The military appeared to be trying to avoid the pitfalls of the last election, in 1990, which it annulled after the party it backed was trounced by a democratic opposition led by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.
In what could be the first sign of a backup plan if this election also did not go the military’s way, Myanmar’s state media, which has been urging people to vote, warned of the possibility of the election’s being “aborted,” in which case, it said, “the ruling government will have no choice but to keep taking state responsibilities until it holds another election.”
Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi, now 65, has been held under house arrest for most of the time since the past election.
Her latest term of detention ends one week after the election, and the junta has hinted that she could be released. It has often made similar hints in the past, and there was no way to know what restrictions might be imposed if she is set free.
Her party chose not to take part in what it called a sham election and was therefore forced to disband.
Sunday’s elections are the first for a large share of voters. Anyone 37 or younger was not eligible to vote two decades ago.
With half of the population of Myanmar 26 or younger, many voters seemed puzzled by how the process actually worked. Newspapers have run articles giving step-by-step instructions to voters, and many residents of Yangon, the country’s commercial capital, have received fliers from candidates or seen the sparse collection of election posters.
But in smaller towns and villages, where the vast majority of Myanmar’s estimated 53 million people live, some people anticipated confusion at the polls.
A restaurant owner in Bago, the former royal capital 42 miles north of Yangon, said his staff of about dozen workers did not fully understand voting procedures. “I told them you have to tick a box and that’s it,” the owner said.
Some voters said they were afraid to go to polling stations because they were intimidated by election commission officials and assumed that their names and choices would be recorded, he said. The election has also engendered more general fears of unrest among some families, with households hoarding rice and other staples, the restaurant owner said.
But half an hour from Bago, amid the golden stalks of rice paddies ready for harvest, a family of farmers said they understood the system well after daily broadcasts on state radio instructing them on how to vote. The father knew the voting hours and how many candidates were running.
Concerns about the overall fairness of the elections were widespread. Phone Win, an independent candidate running for a parliamentary seat in Yangon, said a major unknown in the election was the number of people, especially civil servants or police and military, who took part in advance voting.
The actual vote counting was to be done with representatives of each candidate present, but pre-voting takes place out of sight of election officials, Mr. Phone Win said.
He added that many people might stay away from the polls for a familiar reason in Myanmar. “People are afraid,” he said.
No comments:
Post a Comment