Myanmar is heading towards unconvincing elections

General elections will take place on 8 November. That wouldn’t be big news in most countries, but for Myanmar it is a sensation. The last multi-party elections to form a parliamentary government were held in 1960. Two years later, the army staged a coup and the country was ruled by a military junta for half a century.

Katja Dombrowski

02.11.2015

After they had ruined and isolated the country almost completely, the generals decided for what they called the “roadmap to democracy”. As part of this process, they allowed general elections in 2010. Those polls were rather fake though, and the National League for Democracy (NDL), the main opposition party headed by national hero and Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, boycotted them. Since then, a lot has changed in Myanmar – economically, socially and politically. Genuine democracy is still far away though.

One quarter of the seats in parliament are still reserved for appointed military officials. That means the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) headed by incumbent President Thein Sein, which won more than 75 % of the votes in 2010, will need at least a 26 % share of seats in order to wield influence in selecting the next president. And they will find it harder to win that percentage because, this time, the NDL is taking part, and it is just very popular!

Nonetheless, there is no reason to be overexcited. NDL party leader Aung San Suu Kyi is banned from becoming president by a ridiculous law that was tailored just for her: The president must not have a spouse or children of foreign nationality. Aung San Suu Kyi’s late husband was British and so are her children. So all she can do is use her popularity to lead her party’s campaign – and pull the strings behind the scenes should the NDL win a majority.

Apart from all the flaws that still exist – such as inaccurate voter lists, disqualified candidates and lack of transparency –, apart from the quarter of the seats that are not up for vote, from the hundreds of thousands of Rohingya people and other ethnic minorities who are not allowed to register and from the areas where continued fighting makes an election impossible, apart from all this – what choice do the people of Myanmar have if they cannot get the president they want? How can these elections be called free and fair? They aren’t genuine. Transition to democracy is far from achieved.