Polls open in Myanmar as Aung San Suu Kyi eyes historic win

[Jonathan Fairfield]

Polls open in Myanmar as Aung San Suu Kyi eyes historic win

By Ros Russell

A supporter waves a flag during a Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) campaign rally in Yangon Nov. 6, 2015. Myanmar heads to the polls on Nov. 8. (REUTERS/Soe Zeya Tun)

YANGON (Myanmar Now) – Polls opened in Myanmar’s landmark election on Sunday, with the opposition of former political prisoner Aung San Suu Kyi needing a landslide victory to turn the page on more than half a century of army-led rule.

While Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) is widely tipped to win the poll, billed as Myanmar’s first credible election in decades, the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) has a head start even before the first ballot is cast.

A quarter of seats in parliament are reserved by the constitution for military officers, on whose support the USDP of President Thein Sein can depend. Therefore the NLD needs to sweep more than two thirds of contested seats to wrest power from the military and its backers.

From 6 am, around 33 million eligible voters will cast ballots for lawmakers to the upper and lower houses of the national parliament and to regional and state legislatures. Polls close at 4 pm and counting will begin immediately.

A total of 91 parties are contesting the elections, two thirds of them representing Myanmar’s numerous ethnic minority groups. But more than a million Rohingya Muslims, unrecognised as citizens, have been disenfranchised from the vote.

The vote will determine the direction of Myanmar’s democratic transition that began in 2011 when the semi-civilian government of former general Thein Sein took power and embarked on a series of political and economic reforms. Critics say some of the reforms have stalled, or are even in reverse.

“Tomorrow is an important day for Myanmar, for our people,” said 26-year-old Kyaw Swar, an assistant in a mobile phone shop in the commercial capital Yangon. “We want to finish with these soldiers.”

If the NLD captures at least 67 percent of contested seats - gaining a majority despite the 25 percent military allocation enshrined by the 2008 constitution – it should be able to form a government and choose the next president when parliament convenes in February.

Suu Kyi herself is barred from the top office by the army-drafted constitution because her two sons are foreign nationals, but said at a news conference this week that she would be “above the president” and take all important decisions.

With the backing of the military bloc, however, and alliances with smaller parties, the USDP could possibly form a new government with less than a third of the seats up for election, political analysts say.

The election is the first to be contested by the main opposition since a 1990 vote, which the NLD won by a landslide. The military junta annulled the result and Suu Kyi was held under house arrest for much of the following two decades. She was released in 2010, shortly after an election boycotted by her party.

This time, the military and the government will accept the election outcome, Thein Sein said on Friday, and pledged to work with opposition parties to ensure a stable transition.

But the vote has already been beset by problems, with thousands missing from voter lists and some nationals abroad shut out of voting. Suu Kyi has complained of irregularities in advance voting, and has accused the Union Election Commission of failing in its duties to ensure a fair vote.

Teams from the European Union, the United States-based Carter Center, the Asian Network for Free Elections (ANFREL) as well as grassroots Myanmar groups will deploy some 10,000 observers to scrutinise voting procedures on Sunday.

Preliminary results are expected within 48 hours of the vote, and full results within two weeks.

Source: http://www.myanmar-now.org/news/i/?id=1d98267e-16c9-4cbf-883e-63a527ef1f28

-- (c) Copyright Myanmar Now2015-11-08

[English 1]

Terrible Regime.

Why should this courageous Lady be denied the Top Job because her 2 Sons are only half Burmese?

She is 100%

And this is supposed to be a Democratic Election BUT 25% of Seats are preserved for the Junta!

Despots.