Rubber-stamp Myanmar voting? [-Sounds like Hun Xen's Cambodia]

Despite a wealth of parties, there seemed little question of anything really changing as a result of the nation's first multiparty election in 20 years.

November 7, 2010

LOS ANGELES TIMES (California, USA)

YANGON, MYANMAR - Myanmar held its first multiparty election in 20 years Sunday as citizens chose from among lions, peacocks, bamboo hats, eyeglasses and other party symbols in a carefully scripted contest unlikely to bring about significant change.

While results were not expected before Monday, the outcome was never in question. Opposition candidates were far outspent, outmanned and out-advertised by the two main parties backed by the country's military rulers. Twenty-five percent of parliamentary seats are reserved for the military, and the government-crafted constitution and skewed election rules heavily favored the regime's candidates.

In Mumbai, India, President Obama termed the vote "anything but free and fair."

British Ambassador Andrew Heyn, who toured polling places Sunday morning, reported no evidence of enthusiasm. "There is a sense that people are going through the motions of the process with a presumption that the outcome is predetermined," he said.

In Yangon, Myanmar's largest city, polling stations on 47th Street and 38th Street had only a trickle of voters in the morning and were largely empty by early afternoon, while a larger station on Sule Pagoda Road had a steady trickle but no line.

"I voted for the fighting peacock," said a Yangon money-changer, referring to the symbol of the 88 Generation party which, despite evoking a former student activist movement, favors the government. "You have to vote or the state gives you trouble. They'll figure out a way to win no matter what." He spoke on condition of anonymity.

Some saw Sunday's vote as a way to eventually chip away at the ruling generals' grip after 48 years in power.

"There may be slightly more political space if the other parties win some seats," said Donna Guest, the deputy director of Amnesty International's Asia program and a longtime watcher of Myanmar, which also is known as Burma.

Detained Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, whose National League for Democracy won a landslide victory in the last elections in 1990 but was barred from taking office, urged a boycott of the vote.

In response, the regime pressured its citizens to turn out and vote for "candidates correctly."

Than Nyein, chairman of the National Democratic Front, the largest opposition party running in the elections, symbolized by the bamboo hat, said the boycott "failed miserably." He estimated there was a 60 percent voter turnout, although local reports suggested that could be high.

Residents said government workers were illegally issued ballots in advance for the Union Solidarity and Development Party, a pro-regime party known by its lion image and staffed by many recently decommissioned military officials.

Six of the 37 registered parties that competed for about 1,100 national and regional seats lodged complaints alleging fraud favoring the regime.

Once elected, the national parliament will name a president, almost certain to be a former general.

The Washington Post and Associated Press contributed to this report.