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Myanmar holds its breath as the nation votes

The Nov. 8 vote is the first open election in 25 years
Myanmar holds its breath as the nation votes

At 4 a.m. on Myanmar's Election Day, Nov. 8, Ma Ohn Mar was in the queue ready to vote. (Photo by Michael Sainsbury)

Published: November 08, 2015 11:30 AM GMT
Updated: November 08, 2015 12:07 AM GMT

By dawn there were hundreds of voters in queues snaking outside Myanmar's 40,000 polling stations as more than 30 million people prepared to cast their ballots in the nation's first widely contested election since 1990.

In Kamayut Township in suburban Yangon, Ma Ohn Mar and her three friends proudly showed their fingers stained in ink, a mark to show that they had voted and which authorities use to prevent attempts at voting more than once.

"We came at 4 a.m. We didn't want to miss out in case any thing bad happened," Ma Ohn Mar told ucanews.com.

The nation's two biggest cities, Yangon and Mandalay, were calm after voting began at 6 a.m. with most shops closed and the roads oddly empty, as many people voted for the first time.

The election is largely seen as a contest between the ruling military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD), the latter expected to win most of the parliamentary seats.

"I think USDP will surely be defeated by the NLD as people have been suffering for more than five decades under the military," said U Sone, a 78-year-old man from Zepingyi village near Pyin-Oo-Lwin, outside Mandalay, told ucanews.com Nov. 7.

 

Ethnic parties to play a key role

Nonetheless, the country's numerous ethnic parties appear destined to play a key role in negotiations that will be held in the months that follow the poll and before the president is elected by the new parliament early next year.

Saw Daniel, from the Kayah Unity Democracy Party in Kayah State, said he expects at least 150 ethnic candidates to be in the new parliament.

Asked if the election is to be considered free and fair, Saw Daniel told ucanews.com Nov. 8 that it would be only viewed as 60 percent free and fair.

Suu Kyi's claim on Nov. 5 that she would be "above the president" has not resonated well with some ethnic groups.

Tu Ja, a Catholic politician from the Kachin State Democracy Party, noted that Suu Kyi used her personal popularity in the final days of the campaign. "But saying she would be above the president is against constitutional and democratic principles," Tu Ja said.

Hours before the polls were to close on Nov. 8, the Union Election Commission brought forward their timetable for the release of results. Initially, preliminary results were to be posted on Nov. 10 but the commission will now release running tallies at regular intervals from 9 a.m.

There are more than 90 political parties and 6,000 candidates competing in the polls – nearly 1,000 of them Christians. The elections will decide lawmakers for lower and upper houses of the national parliament as well as for state and regional parliaments.

Despite making up only 7 percent of Myanmar's population, Christians dominate four of the remote states that are agitating for changes in the country's constitution to create a federated model rather than regions that are subservient to the federal parliament.

President Thein Sein promised on state television Nov. 6 that "the government and the military would respect the results of the election."

The NLD must win at least 67 percent of contested seats to get an outright majority government as one-quarter of seats are reserved for military representatives under the 2008 Constitution.

Suu Kyi is barred from being the country's president as she married a British citizen and has two sons who are British citizens.

But Suu Kyi said recently that she would be "above the president," a remark critics see as controversial.

 

Tough battle for main opposition

There are a range of serious questions over a poll whose authenticity has been questioned by international rights groups due to several problems with voter lists, mass disenfranchisement of as many as 800,000 Muslim Rohinya and anticipated problems with vote counting.

Another question is how many votes the National League for Democracy and other parties can expect in a country still living with a deeply rooted fear of the military.

Khin Mg Htay, an NLD candidate for a regional parliament, said he can expect a maximum of 3,000 out of 13,000 eligible voters from the military and its families in Pyin-Oo-Lwin, a military-based town that is a one-hour car drive from Mandalay.

His main rival is Mandalay's chief minister, Ye Myint, who is from the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party.

"I have to face a tough battle with Ye Myint as our constituency has many military and civil servant voters. But we got strong support from people in our campaign and I think I can win the seat," Khin Mg Htay told reporters in Pyin-Oo-Lwin Nov. 7.

Michael Tun, a member of the anti-government 88 Generation and Open Society group in Pyin-Oo-Lwin, said that while the election is a step toward democracy, it doesn't mean that the country will be totally changed after the polls — even if the current government loses.

"If we can't amend the military-drafted constitution, we will not get peace, a federal union and democracy," Michael Tun pointed out.

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