NAYPYIDAW: Myanmar said Monday foreign election observers and international media would not be allowed into the country for next month’s election, seen by critics as a sham to entrench military rule.
Foreign diplomats and representatives from UN organisations based in Myanmar will be allowed to observe voting, said election commission chairman Thein Soe. But there is no need for overseas poll monitors because “our country has a lot of experience in elections,” he said in a briefing to diplomats and media in the capital.
“We are holding the election for this country,” added Thein Soe. “It’s not for other countries…. We will have credibility after holding the election in front of all the people.” No photography or filming would be allowed inside the polling stations so as to enable voters to “cast their votes freely”, he said, adding that ballots would be counted “in front of voters”.
More than 29 million people — roughly half the official population — will be eligible to cast a ballot, with 3,071 candidates from 37 parties contesting the vote. The Nobel Peace Prize winner’s current term of house arrest is due to expire on November 13, just days after the election. Myanmar’s Supreme Court held a hearing Monday to consider Suu Kyi’s latest appeal against her detention, but did not announce a decision on whether to consider the application.
“We have to wait about two weeks for the judgement,” said Suu Kyi’s lawyer Nyan Win. “We are satisfied with our arguments. We’re hoping they will accept the case.” Suu Kyi lodged the last-ditch appeal in May. She has already had her appeal rejected twice, most recently by the Supreme Court in February. Court verdicts in the army-ruled country rarely favour opposition activists. Even if Suu Kyi is released, observers believe the pro-democracy leader is unlikely to be allowed full freedom to conduct political activities.
Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party has been dissolved by the authorities because it chose to boycott next month’s vote, saying the rules were unfair. The junta’s proxy parties are seen as having a major advantage in the contest for the remaining seats. Thein Soe denied the election rules were tilted in favour of the junta-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party, led by Prime Minister Thein Sein, who retired from his military post earlier this year.
“We have no big parties nor small parties. All are the same. If the party is registered, this party will get its rights,” Thein Soe said.
Last month the junta announced it was scrapping voting in swathes of insurgency-plagued ethnic areas — a move criticised as excluding millions from a poll already seen as undemocratic.
