Skip to main content
Myanmar

Myanmar opposition calls elections a sham

Myanmar is holding its first elections in 20 years on Sunday, while opposition parties have already called the election a sham. The opposition National League for Democracy, led by Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, has boycotted the poll. She remains under house arrest.

Soe Zeya Tun/Reuters
Advertising

Correspondents following the vote say its hard to tell how many people are turning out, though one man in Yangon, who wanted to remain anonymous, says there do not seem to be many people.

"At any time there is about 25 to 30 voters in the polling station," said the 30-year-old man. "At the same time polling officials seem to outnumber the actual number of voters," he told correspondent Remy Favre in the capital.
 

"The conditions of voting may not be up to international standards," said the man, who voted earlier in the day.

Additionally, some foreign diplomats have said they have little faith in the freeness and fairness of these elections.

But correspondent Arnaud Dubusse says there is a glimmer of hope. He is based in neighbouring Thailand. Like many, his visa application to cover the elections on site was turned down.

But he has been following events in Myanmar closely for years and says there is a transformation in  the Myanmar with privatisation of companies. Additionally, he tells RFI, there has been a rise in civil society groups over the past three years.

"Democracy will not happen from one day to another, but we can hope that for the next election in 2015....that the piolitical landscape and the situation in the country will be very different," he says.

Meanwhile, a Japanese journalist was arrested in Myanmar today and will be charged with illegal entry. A government official said that the journalist, working for the Tokyo-based news agency APF News was detained in the southeastern border town Miawaddy after crossing over the border from Thailand.
 

Correspondents following vote say its hard to tell how many people are turning out, though this man in Yangon, who wanted to remain anonymous, says there do not seem to be many people.

Daily newsletterReceive essential international news every morning

Keep up to date with international news by downloading the RFI app

Share :
Page not found

The content you requested does not exist or is not available anymore.