Close eye on Myanmar polls

 Bangkokpost: March 30, 2012 ...

International and local observers are gearing up to monitor Sunday's byelections in Myanmar, where political canvassers were busy soliciting support in advance polling that began on Friday.

Convoys of political party vehicles on Friday were zigzagging around six constituencies in Yangon Division where advance voting is taking place for three days.

Residents seemed cheerful, waving and chanting the name of the National League for Democracy (NLD) in response to the motorcades.

A total of 157 candidates from 17 parties are contesting seats in the Hluttaw (Parliament). Of these, 129 will contest 37 seats in the Pyithu Hluttaw (Lower House), while 22 will compete for six seats in the Amyotha Hluttaw (Upper House). Six candidates will compete for two seats in regional or state parliaments, according to the Election Commission.

Local observers in this poll are receiving better treatment from the government than in the 2010 elections, said Tin Maung Htwe, a local officer who trained with the Asian Network for Free Elections (Anfrel) and is affiliated with the 88 Generation Group.

"Thanks to the post-Nargis humanitarian efforts, groups of local volunteers from various divisions have emerged," he explained, referring to the 2008 cyclone. "We hooked up with them and got them work, though in a low-profile and informal manner, to observe the 2010 elections, so for the Sunday elections, there will be over 2,000 local observers providing information for the centre team in Yangon."

Local observers under the banner of Myanmar Election Observers were also being allowed to field observers on the ground in 40 of the 45 constituencies, he said.

The complaints coming in from various constutuencies are typical of what one might hear in any country during an election campaign. The Democratic Party (Myanmar) said the local government in Mingalartaungnyunt township had intentionally obstructed its activities by choosing this month to pave the road in front of the party headquarters. The Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) complained its signposts were stripped, National League for Democracy (NLD) candidates in Nay Pyi Taw said people threw stones at them, while citizens in Mandalay's Kyaint Pa Down township said it was hard to check the voters' lists at booths which were located in a military compound.

The National Democratic Force (NDF), meanwhile, has complained that local media were biased in favour of the NLD, the party led by Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi.

Kallayana Vipattpumiprates, the Thai embassy charge d'affaires, told the Bangkok Post that he and his Indonesian colleague from Yangon were meeting in Mandalay on Friday and would stay on until Monday.

Mr Kallayana said the Myanmar Foreign Ministry had given international observers all necessary information and freedom to choose where they wanted to go to see how the people cast their votes.

Asean secretary-general Surin Pitsuwan said he welcomed Myanmar's initiative in inviting its Asean neighbours, dialogue partners and international organisations to observe the polling.

"We are pleased to lend our support to this very significant political process, in which we hope, will contribute further to national reconciliation. We are encouraged by the preparations that we have seen and the efforts done to advance and facilitate this democratic exercise," Mr Surin said in a statement from Phnom Penh.

The Asean Secretariat received an invitation to observe the election just a month after he visited Myanmar President Thein Sein and suggested that the vote be open to Asean observers, and potentially Asean media.

More than 150 international observers from the European Union, the United States, Canada, Australia, India and Asean will be monitoring the casting of ballots

Three Thai delegates from the Parliamentary Office have already returned after one night in Yangon, leaving behind only media from Radio Parliament, NBT and MCOT. They will be observing the Sunday elections at Kawmu, 60 kilometres west of Yangon city; Mayangone, 15 km east of downtown Yangon; and Mingalartaungnyunt, five kilometres from the city.

Five observers from Canberra are going to the Irrawaddy plains, and one embassy-based official observer is going to the Magway region, according to the Australian Embassy.

The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (Forum-Asia), Alternative Asean Network on Burma (Altsean-Burma), and Forum for Democracy in Burma (FDB) jointly issued a statement calling for reforms in the lead-up to the byelections, saying the process was already marred by irregularities and censorship.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/breakingnews/286750/close-eye-on-myanmar-polls