YANGON, Nov 6, (AFP) - Myanmar's military regime and its political proxy faced growing accusations Saturday of threats and intimidation on the eve of the country's controversial first election in two decades.
Ethnic minority groups added their voices to opposition complaints that the main junta-backed party was “cheating” ahead of Sunday's poll, already criticised by many as a charade to camouflage army rule.
Two parties aligned to the military are together fielding about two-thirds of the total candidates and the weakened opposition has slim chance of success with democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi locked up.
The Democratic Party (Myanmar) and National Democratic Force (NDF) accused the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) Friday of illegally collecting advance ballots by coercion.
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| A Myanmarese election campaigner (R) talks with a resident as she promotes elections in downtown Yangon. REUTERS |
Signs of voter intimidation were also reported by the Chin Human Rights Organisation, which said that in a ward in Chin State, in western Myanmar, one of the polling stations was at an army checkpoint.
“How can people feel free to vote for the party of their choice if soldiers are watching them?” said programme director Salai Za Uk Ling.
According to exile news website Irrawaddy, two major ethnic minority parties have threatened to contest the result of the vote if concerns over alleged USDP abuses are not dealt with.
The All Mon Region Democracy Party, based in Mon State in the southeast, and the Rakhine National Development Party (RNDP), in Rakhine State in the west, have voiced complaints about the party.
“If the USDP wins the polls due to the influence and resources of the government, then ethnic and other pro-democracy parties will boycott the election results,” RNDP chairman Aye Maung was quoted as saying.
The USDP, formed by ministers who retired from the military in April, has allegedly been helped by local authorities to force people, from teachers to factory workers, to vote early and for the junta party.
Democratic Party chairman Thu Wai told AFP on Friday that his party was “deeply concerned” about stories of voter intimidation across the country and has filed an official complaint.
“We have learnt that the USDP together with ward authorities are trying to get advance votes by cheating, bribing or threatening people,” said a letter from the party to the Union Election Commission in the capital Naypyidaw.
The junta was also feared to be intentionally blocking access to information, with the Internet down across Yangon on Friday.
Facts about Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi
Aung San Suu Kyi, the figurehead of Myanmar's fight against military dictatorship, is scheduled to be released from house arrest on Nov. 13, six days after the country's first election in two decades.
Here are some facts about Suu Kyi, who went from being an English country housewife to a Nobel peace laureate incarcerated for 15 of the last 21 years because of her fight for democracy in the former Burma.
Born in Rangoon (now Yangon) in June 1945, she isdaughter of General Aung San, an independence hero assassinated in 1947. Her mother, Khin Kyi, was also a prominent figure.
She studied politics in New Delhi and philosophy, politics and economics at Britain's Oxford University. In 1972 she married British academic Michael Aris.
Suu Kyi returned to Yangon in April 1988 to take care of her dying mother at a time of countrywide pro-democracy protests against the army regime. Keen to continue her father's legacy, she entered politics and became secretary-general of the National League for Democracy (NLD) party.
The junta placed the charismatic and popular Suu Kyi under house arrest in July 1989 for “endangering the state”.
Even without her, the NLD won 392 of 485 parliamentary seats in Myanmar's first election in almost 30 years. The military refused to relinquish power.
Suu Kyi, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991, has been in prison or under house arrest off and on since 1989.
She was found guilty on Aug. 11, 2009, of breaking a security law by allowing American intruder John Yettaw to stay at her lakeside home for two nights. Critics said the charges were trumped up to prevent her from having any influence over the 2010 polls.
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