Just under a month before Myanmar goes to the polls for a key general election, the body in charge of the vote has proposed it be postponed due to concerns flooding may stop a few people from voting.
Advertisement
Myanmar election officials have suggested postponing November elections, where the main opposition party led by Aung San Suu Kyi appeared to be heading for an historic victory.
“The reason they gave for a postponement was not reasonable”, Win Htein, an NLD lawmaker, said by phone on Tuesday after a meeting with election authorities to discuss a possible delay.
Win Htein said that the floods were insufficient reason to postpone the landmark vote.
The ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party swept the 2010 polls, which were boycotted by the NLD, who alleged widespread fraud. Parts of western Myanmar, including the impoverished Chin state, were devastated by the disaster.
Mg Mg Naing, a senior official with the election commission in Karen state, confirmed that there are cancelations in his jurisdiction, but said he could not verify the number of people affected because most of the villages would not have been included in an initial voters’ list.
During July and August, floods in Myanmar killed 121 people and caused more than 1.6 million to flee their homes, according to the United Nations.
The military holds 25 percent of the seats in parliament and is closely allied with the USDP, which is comprised largely of former military officers. In 2008, Myanmar’s military rulers rebuffed calls to delay a constitutional referendum held a week after a cyclone killed about 140,000 people.
She is not expected to attend the ceasefire signing, which is between the government and eight armed groups.
Mr Thein Sein, a former general, has been widely praised for overseeing a democratic transition after the military ceded power to a quasi-civilian government in 2011.
Shwe Mann, the ousted chairman of the USDP, had to postpone a campaign stop planned for Tuesday in his hometown of Phyu in Bago region, north of Yangon, where he is running for a seat in parliament.
Massachusetts Ba Tha, an organisation led by hardline nationalist monks that has sharply criticised the NLD, has stoked religious tension. The proposal was backed by the USDP, the Farmers Development Party and the National Development Party, which was founded by former presidential adviser U Nay Zin Latt. Three parties expressed no opinion and three others were absent from the meeting.
Advertisement
“We said it was only up to the Union Election Commission to make the final decision, not to the party”.
