Rangoon
April 2, 2012 1:00 am
Myanmar's eligible voters yesterday cast their ballots, many for the first time in decades, with happiness, excitement and in the hope that the poll would steer their country towards democracy - and largely because of the participation of Nobel laureate and opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Suu Kyi looked set to make history yesterday, but complaints of ballot-tampering cast fresh doubt on the fairness of the parliamentary vote.Daw Kyin Mya, 87, accompanied by a daughter, was walking slowly to a polling station in Yangon's Mayangone township under a hot sun around midday to cast her ballot for a candidate from Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD).
"This is my first election," the ageing voter said. "I did not come out to vote in the 2010 general election because Aung San Suu Kyi was not in the contest."
Suu Kyi herself voted in Kaw Hmu township some 60 kilometres south of Yangon.
Student Shwe Zin Win, 18, a first-time voter in Mayangone township, said she also voted for an NLD candidate, while her mother, who was a government official, voted for the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP).
"I'm very happy to have the right to vote and it's very exciting to cast a ballot for the first time," Shwe Zin Win said, adding that as many of seven members of her family would be voting for their preferred choices.
A hotel employee, Za Yar Win, 31, said he and his wife voted for the NLD since they regarded it as the political party of their family. "I hope the NLD will take all vacant seats in the Parliament," he said.
Many other voters felt this was unlikely, saying the NLD might win a majority of the 45 constituencies up for grabs but could not gain a landslide victory.
The current regime called a by-election for yesterday to fill 45 vacant seats in the Parliament after some MPs were picked to sit in cabinet posts and executive positions.
The stake of 45 out of 664 seats in the parliament might not have any significant effect on Myanmar's parliamentary politics, but it matters for the country, which kicked off political reform toward democracy last year.
Opposition leader Suu Kyi and her NLD officially participated in electoral politics for the first time since their landslide victory in 1990 was rejected by authorities.
Many voters who cast ballots in the 2010 general election said this by-election was relatively freer and more open than the previous one.
Only a few voters interviewed by The Nation in front of polling stations declined to say for whom they voted. Most dared to discuss their choices openly.
"In the 2010 general election people voted under pressure as they feared the military, but it is more open this time as many foreigners have come to see us," said Thein Tun. "I think we can say this election is free and fair," he said.
NLD officials complained there were some technical irregularities in Mingalar Taung Nyunt township as the number of voters on the election commission list was fewer than that of the NLD.
Phyu Phyu Thin, an NLD candidate in Mingalar Taung Nyunt township, took a van to inspect many polling stations in the township of her constituency.
The authority allowed candidates and their representatives into the polling stations to inspect the voting. One or two representatives from each political party could sit inside the polling station. They could file complaints to officials at the station if they found any irregularities in the ballot-casting process.
Journalists and observers could not go inside polling stations. Officials asked them to look at the ballot casting from afar, but they could take pictures and talk to voters and candidates freely.
U Thu Wai, chairman of the Democratic Party (Myanmar), a candidate in Mingalar Taung Nyunt, said he walked through many polling stations in his constituency to make sure there would be nothing wrong in the ballot casting. "So far, I have found no problem and I think this election is open and transparent enough for us," he said.
However there were some misunderstandings among voters over the procedure and their rights. A female voter stood sadly at a station after officials in Mayagone township refused to let her cast a ballot on behalf of her sick mother.
The polls were marred somewhat by allegations of ballot-paper irregularities, notably that wax had been put over the check box for the NLD that could be rubbed off later to cancel the vote.
"This is happening around the country. The election commission is responsible for what is occurring," NLD spokesman Nyan Win told AFP.
"I have sent a complaint letter to the union election commission. If it continues like this it can harm the prestige of the election."