Many of the candidates who complained of widespread vote-rigging in Burma's Nov. 7 election appear to have fallen silent on the issue since the country's Union Election Commission (EC) warned them last week that they could face severe penalties for questioning the outcome of the vote.
On Nov. 17, the EC told candidates who planned to challenge the election results because of alleged irregularities that they could be fined 300,000 kyat (US $340) and sentenced to three years in prison if their accusations are deemed to be unfounded.
Two days later, a group of candidates from three different parties—the Union Democratic Party (UDP), the National Democratic Force and the New Era People's Party—as well as several independent candidates held a press conference in Pegu to highlight cheating in the vote.
However, only 10 candidates attended the press conference, while around 30 others stayed away because of fears of punishment by the authorities.
“They are threatening our parties not to say anything about their unfair voting system, but we will continue to tell voters about how the EC has taken unfair votes,” said UDP Chairman Thein Htay, one of the participants in the press conference.
“If we keep quiet, the people will suffer and no free and fair system will emerge in this country,” he added.
Burma's state-run media has also moved to silence domestic critics of the election, which has been widely denounced as a sham by most Western countries because of the absence of independent observers.
On the same day that the EC issued its warning to candidates who expressed a desire to challenge the vote results, the official press accused some political parties of making fraudulent complaints about the polls or reporting unfounded allegations to overseas media.
However, despite growing pressure on the opposition to avoid any public discussion of alleged vote-fixing, some parties continue to air their grievances.
“They don't want us to talk to the [foreign] media, but if we stop talking about this, only they [the regime] will benefit from this election,” said Nai Ngwe Thein, the chairman of All Mon Regions Democracy Party (AMDP), on Monday.
He added, however, that his party does not have enough money to pay the one million kyat ($1,136) that it would cost to legally contest the election results, saying that all 34 of the AMDP's candidates have exhausted their campaign funds. He said that each of the party's candidates spent at least 1.3 million kyat ($1,477) on the election, including the 500,000 kyat ($568) registration fee.
Before the election, many ethnic party candidates predicted that they would win the majority of votes in their states. Party leaders also believed that the election would be free and fair, despite the decision of the main opposition party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), to boycott the election because of stringent election laws that heavily favored the junta-backed the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP).
China's official Xinhua news agency, citing the EC's final figures, reported that the USDP won 76.5 percent of the seats in the election.
“I think they planned before the election which seats they would give to the ethnic party candidates and which they would take for themselves,” said Nai Ngwe Thein. “Whenever they didn't get the seats they wanted, they just used advance votes to beat the opposition candidates.”
Other parties also complained that advance votes were used to prevent opposition candidates from winning in constituencies where they were clearly leading.
“The USDP claimed nearly 80 percent of the seats and the pro-democracy parties won only a few seats because of the advance votes,” said Hlung Ce, the chairman of the Chin Progressive Party. “It was very unfair. It was meaningless to hold the election.”
Now that the opposition parties have been denied any legal recourse to challenge the election outcome, some said they hope to work together with NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi to advance the cause of democracy in Burma.
Source:http://irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=20160
On Nov. 17, the EC told candidates who planned to challenge the election results because of alleged irregularities that they could be fined 300,000 kyat (US $340) and sentenced to three years in prison if their accusations are deemed to be unfounded.
Two days later, a group of candidates from three different parties—the Union Democratic Party (UDP), the National Democratic Force and the New Era People's Party—as well as several independent candidates held a press conference in Pegu to highlight cheating in the vote.
However, only 10 candidates attended the press conference, while around 30 others stayed away because of fears of punishment by the authorities.
“They are threatening our parties not to say anything about their unfair voting system, but we will continue to tell voters about how the EC has taken unfair votes,” said UDP Chairman Thein Htay, one of the participants in the press conference.
“If we keep quiet, the people will suffer and no free and fair system will emerge in this country,” he added.
Burma's state-run media has also moved to silence domestic critics of the election, which has been widely denounced as a sham by most Western countries because of the absence of independent observers.
On the same day that the EC issued its warning to candidates who expressed a desire to challenge the vote results, the official press accused some political parties of making fraudulent complaints about the polls or reporting unfounded allegations to overseas media.
However, despite growing pressure on the opposition to avoid any public discussion of alleged vote-fixing, some parties continue to air their grievances.
“They don't want us to talk to the [foreign] media, but if we stop talking about this, only they [the regime] will benefit from this election,” said Nai Ngwe Thein, the chairman of All Mon Regions Democracy Party (AMDP), on Monday.
He added, however, that his party does not have enough money to pay the one million kyat ($1,136) that it would cost to legally contest the election results, saying that all 34 of the AMDP's candidates have exhausted their campaign funds. He said that each of the party's candidates spent at least 1.3 million kyat ($1,477) on the election, including the 500,000 kyat ($568) registration fee.
Before the election, many ethnic party candidates predicted that they would win the majority of votes in their states. Party leaders also believed that the election would be free and fair, despite the decision of the main opposition party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), to boycott the election because of stringent election laws that heavily favored the junta-backed the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP).
China's official Xinhua news agency, citing the EC's final figures, reported that the USDP won 76.5 percent of the seats in the election.
“I think they planned before the election which seats they would give to the ethnic party candidates and which they would take for themselves,” said Nai Ngwe Thein. “Whenever they didn't get the seats they wanted, they just used advance votes to beat the opposition candidates.”
Other parties also complained that advance votes were used to prevent opposition candidates from winning in constituencies where they were clearly leading.
“The USDP claimed nearly 80 percent of the seats and the pro-democracy parties won only a few seats because of the advance votes,” said Hlung Ce, the chairman of the Chin Progressive Party. “It was very unfair. It was meaningless to hold the election.”
Now that the opposition parties have been denied any legal recourse to challenge the election outcome, some said they hope to work together with NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi to advance the cause of democracy in Burma.
Source:http://irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=20160
Comments
Post a Comment