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Sunday’s elections are the second democratic elections in Myanmar in decades. It should be a sign that the country, which has long been ruled by a military junta, is on its way to becoming a functional democracy.
But since the NLD (National Alliance for Democracy) led by Aung San Suu Kyi won a landslide victory in the 2015 elections, those expectations have not been met.
The liberalization and democratization of society that was expected from previously acclaimed Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung Suu Kyi has not happened.
Instead, have He appeared before prosecutors at the International Court of Justice in The Hague and defended the attack by the military against the Rohingya Muslim ethnic group in Rakhine state. The treatment has been so brutal that Myanmar is accused of genocide. Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya have been forced to flee to Bangladesh, where they live in inhumane conditions. Others are forced to live in makeshift camps in Myanmar due to ongoing fighting, camps that human rights organizations describe as open prisons.
Aung San Suu Kyi casts her vote early.
Photo: Aung Shine Oo / AP
Still, the NLD is expected to win in Sunday’s election. The party has continued to support the Burmese, the ethnic group that makes up the majority of Myanmar’s population, and has also made it difficult for the opposition to make a voice in the election campaign. Restrictions due to covid-19 have impeded campaign work. The participation of ethnic minority candidates has also been prohibited.
Ahead of the elections, the UN Special Rapporteur on Myanmar, Thomas Andrews, has called on the government to stop targeting opposition supporters. Andrews expresses concern that the majority of Rohingya Muslims are denied the right to vote. According to him, Myanmar uses an old colonial regime, introduced by Great Britain in 1861, to imprison journalists, students and others who exercise their freedom of expression.
According to a 1982 citizen law, only those with two parents born in the country can vote and stand for election. The problem for many Rohingya, who have lived in Myanmar for a long time, is that they do not have the paperwork to prove it.
During the election campaign The opposition media have also been censored. The mobile Internet connection in some regions has been limited, which has meant that the majority of the population has not been able to download news on the Internet and journalists have found it difficult to carry out their work. During COVID-19, the government has said that only those who perform “meaningful” tasks can move, not including journalists.
Due to the virus, the NLD has also banned important political gatherings, making it difficult for the opposition and giving the NLD space in pro-government media. The fact that 24 opposition parties have appealed to postpone the elections has not been taken into account.
In the five years since the 2015 elections, the human rights situation has deteriorated, freedom of the press has deteriorated and the Rohingya have committed crimes, Human Rights Watch writes in a report. The organization’s assessment is that the choice is neither free nor fair. Several ingredients that define free choice are missing, such as freedom of expression, freedom of action and freedom of movement, says Human Rights Watch. In addition, the constitution ensures that the military will occupy 25 percent of the seats in both the lower and upper houses of parliament, regardless of the outcome of the elections.
“It is a milestone for Myanmar to hold its second multi-party election, but no matter how long the lines for the polls are, these elections will be fundamentally unfair,” said Brad Adams, Human Rights Watch director for Asia in a statement.
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