“Everything is ready”, said NLD monitor and writer Thein Htay, adding that the elections marked “the hope of every single person in the country”.
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General elections in Myanmar are scheduled to be held on November 8 this year, and the popularity of the country’s most charismatic leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, is surging.
“Naing Ngan Linn tried to stop him… that’s why he sustained many injuries”, said Thet Htar Nwe Win, another NLD candidate, who witnessed the incident.
“As a dignified political organisation, we don’t hate anyone and have to treat all of the people equally”. But nobody could say that there hasn’t been political will behind the holding of an election that is credible and genuine commitment to building trust in progress towards a more representative democracy in Myanmar. She was finally released five years ago.
“A vote from me will be a change for the country”, Anegga raps.
NLD is popular because of Aung San Suu Kyi.
A candidate running for parliament representing Myanmar’s largest opposition party is in hospital with serious wounds after being attacked by men armed with swords. Suu Kyi’s many supporters overseas have been dismayed that she has said little about the plight of the Rohingya, a Muslim minority who have faced decades of persecution and have been treated even worse since the end of the junta.
“This is a huge improvement and we have to keep it in context for what it is”, said Daniel Aguirre, legal adviser in Yangon for the global Commission of Jurists. And while Suu Kyi is barred from the post, she could wield considerable sway on who should lead the country, as it continues to transition into full democracy.
Next week’s election is expected to be the first time since 1990 that citizens of Myanmar will get a chance to choose between all of the main political parties in a parliamentary election.
Tens of thousands streamed into the outdoor parade ground next to a Buddhist temple in an eastern district of Yangon, the first major National League for Democracy (NLD) party rally in the heart of the commercial hub. But that is where the key challenge lies: the ethnic parties between them technically control 30% of the seats in parliament; but more importantly, the military has 25% of the seats in parliament reserved in perpetuity under the constitution.
The military remains a powerful force in politics under a constitution it drafted in 2008 despite Suu Kyi’s efforts to amend it. Boycotted by the NLD and comprehensively won by the USDP, the 2010 elections produced a Union parliament that critics of the military have never recognized as being fully legitimate. The Burmese youth are not necessarily guaranteed to vote for her either.
“In the present climate, we believe that it is a better strategy to win by leaving out Muslims candidates in coming election”, he said, claiming that potential candidates of the Islamic faith had “agreed to that”. The NLD now holds only a tiny fraction of available seats but performed well in the 2012 by-election, leading a few pundits to predict a strong showing this time around. But the ruling USDP of President Thein Sein will be the NLD’s major rival.
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For all the enthusiasm over Suu Kyi, the party is in bullish mood. A decisive victory for the NLD would have positive implications for democratic governance in Myanmar, but could also increase the prospect of military intervention, which would conversely serve to hinder democratic development. Radical Buddhist monks and their supporters, who have already allegedly played a central role in driving many Muslims out of western Myanmar and into internally displaced peoples’ camps, have traveled the country, trying to intimidate Muslims into not voting, and attempting to push candidates toward more hard-line anti-Muslim policies.
