Election-related activities commenced in Myanmar on September 8 despite the recent surge of coronavirus cases in the country. The National League for Democracy (NLD), Myanmar’s ruling party, is firm in its stance to continue with the scheduled polls.
NLD chairperson Aung San Suu Kyi said on Wednesday that the elections are as important as the efforts to fight COVID-19 and can be said to be more important than the COVID-19 outbreak for the nation’s future. She made the comment during an online talk show with the leaders of NLD election campaigns in Kachin, Kayah, and Kayin states.
“We don’t plan to postpone the elections for the reason of COVID-19,” Myint Naing, a senior official at the Union Election Commission (UEC), said in an online briefing on September 21.
De facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi said the elections are as important as the country’s efforts to fight the pandemic and can be said to be more important than the COVID-19 outbreak for the nation’s future. Photo: Annie Zaman
Earlier, 24 political parties, including the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), sought to reschedule the November 8 polls due to mounting health concerns.
“Nothing is more important than our citizens’ lives. The UEC should consider postponing the elections if the situation worsens,” U Nanda Hla Mint, USDP spokesperson, said. The UEC eventually denied the parties’ request.
A deadlier second wave
Dr. Myo Nyunt, member of NLD’s central executive committee, argued that postponing the upcoming elections indefinitely because of COVID-19 might create a political situation that will exacerbate the country’s current health and economic crisis. In a Facebook live video aired on September 15, State Counsellor and NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi also urged her supporters to follow health safety measures during the campaign period to ensure that votes will be cast come November.
The second wave of COVID-19 is deadlier and is spreading at an alarming rate compared to the first wave that hit Myanmar in April 2020. As of September 30, 12,425 confirmed cases and 284 deaths were reported. Over 11,000 people are under quarantine.
The political parties are prevented from holding rallies and campaigning in Yangon, Myanmar’s biggest city, where more than half of the confirmed cases are. The commercial capital has closed its borders, and social gatherings have been limited to six people.
Amid the lockdown and the strict enforcement of health protocols, political parties have been forced to conduct their electoral campaigns through social media platforms, with Facebook as the most preferred medium. The UEC has also increased the number of polling stations from 40,000 to 50,00 to avoid overcrowding and instructed polling agents to wear protective gear.
Crowds of supporters
On September 24, NLD members and supporters drew criticism for holding a motorbike rally in Mandalay despite restrictions. Hundreds of people joined the rally.
“While the country is under the threat of COVID-19, the ruling party should be aware of the potential risk of their campaign activities,” Yangon-based journalist Cape Diamond said.
The second wave of COVID-19 is deadlier and is spreading at an alarming rate in Myanmar. Photo: Annie Zaman
“Even their leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, told the supporters to stay at home, but the latter seemed careless,” he added.
Meanwhile, the opposition believes that the pandemic poses a hindrance to their campaign. “Although political parties are following the COVID-19 SOPs, there would be crowds during the campaigns composed of their supporters,” they pointed out in a letter submitted to UEC.
The November elections are the sixth to be held under the 2008 constitution and the third general elections since the political reforms started in 2010. A total of 1,171 seats in both chambers of the Union Parliament, in the seven states, and in seven regional legislative bodies are expected to be filled up. There are more than 37 million registered voters in Myanmar, 5 million of whom are first-time voters.
Unfair elections
The upcoming polls will also test Myanmar’s progress in terms of democratic reforms.
Thomas Andrews, United Nations (UN) human rights investigator, said the elections will not meet international standards due to the disenfranchisement of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims. Addressing the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on September 22, Andrews stressed that the elections could not be considered free and fair as long as the Rohingya are barred from participating.
“I have seen no evidence that the government is willing or prepared to facilitate the right to vote for hundreds of thousands of voting age Rohingya located in Rakhine state or in refugee camps in Bangladesh,” he said.
Thomas Andrews, UN human rights investigator, said the upcoming polls in Myanmar could not be considered free and fair as long as the Rohingya are barred from participating.
In 2015, more than one million Rohingyas were stripped of their right to vote. Political aspirants from Rohingya were also denied the chance to run for parliamentary seats.
This time, at least six Rohingya candidates have been disqualified from participating in the upcoming elections for lack of ID documents. One of them, Kyaw Min, who also heads the Rohingya-led Democracy and Human Rights Party (DHRP), was barred because his parents were allegedly not Myanmar citizens as required by the Election Law.
Kyaw Win previously won a seat in the country’s elections in 1990s, when the Rohingya could still vote and run for office. However, the military junta annulled the election’s results, prompting him to join the pro-democracy movement led by Aung San Suu Kyi, who was then an opposition activist. In 2005, he was arrested and spent seven years in prison for his pro-democracy work.
The upcoming polls will test Myanmar’s progress in terms of democratic reforms. Photo: Annie Zaman
Human Rights Watch have assailed the disqualifications, dubbing it as one of the various tools used by the Myanmar government to oppress the Rohingya population in the country.
Tun Khin is a Rohingya activist, genocide survivor, and now the president of Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK. His grandfather was a parliamentary secretary in Myanmar.
Tun Khin said Myanmar is setting the stage for a sham election. “For almost a century, we Rohingya participated actively in Myanmar’s political life,” he said. “We had right to vote, to compete as candidates, and to form political parties. We were welcomed in politics.”
Although born and raised in Rakhine state, Tun Khin was also rendered stateless by a 1982 Nationality Law that excludes Rohingya from an arbitrary and disputed list of 135 recognized ethnic groups considered indigenous and eligible to have Burmese nationality.
“Targeted sanctions”
On top of citizenship concerns, parties were also prevented from conducting campaigns in Rakhine state due to the lockdown. Internally displaced persons are stuck in their camps, too, due to the ongoing conflict. They also lack internet access.
Burmese historian and writer Thant Myint-U weighs in on the poor prospects for the elections.
“We can do nothing as they do not allow us to do anything,” U Myo Kyaw, general secretary of Arakan League for Democracy, told The Irrawaddy. “If there is internet access, we may campaign online. But internet access is cut off in most of the townships in Rakhine state. It is a crisis,”
The Myanmar Times earlier reported that voting may not go ahead in some parts of Rakhine, as suggested by the military.
On September 11, eight UN Security Council members—Belgium, France, Germany, Britain, Estonia, Tunisia, United States, and the Dominican Republic—released a joint statement and called for the participation of the Rohingya in the elections.
The statement read: “The elections on 8 November are an important milestone in Myanmar’s transition, which the international community has supported with funding and technical expertise. We underline the importance of ensuring individuals of all communities, including Rohingya, are able to participate safely, fully, and equally in credible and inclusive elections.”
Despite this, Kyaw Win, director of Burma Human Rights Network, expressed concerns that the UN Security Council does not fully acknowledge that Myanmar is repeatedly defying all of their recommendations. She also called for “targeted sanctions” against the civilian government as well as the military.
“The country is failing as a democracy and is subjecting its citizens to brutal military operations,” Kyaw Win said. “These failures deserve consequences.” ●
Annie Zaman (www.anniezaman.com) is an independent journalist and commentator based in Yangon. She can be reached at @natrani.
