myanmar
times
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The National League for Democracy’s resounding victory in the by-electionssets the stage for amonumental showdownin three years time
On theroad to2015
Myanmar oncusp of newera, says NLDleader
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All the bestphotos fromby-election day
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White tigersupset largeropponents inLashio
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Voter list errorsplague pollingacross country
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Pic: Ko Taik
By Shwe Yin Mar Oo andMyat May Zin
A
LINE o people, bothmen and women, wearing Kayintraditional dress waited on theconcrete road at the entranceto Wa Thein Ka village. Whenthe Pajero carrying Daw Aung San Suu Kyi appeared on theconcrete strip, the peoplegreeted her uniormly inKayin language.“It means, Daw Aung SanSuu Kyi, be successul!”explained a Kayin woman inthe crowd.The Pajero slowly passedthe 100 or so pedestrians,including a bunch o localand oreign reporters, andarrived in the village about7pm.“It is important thattomorrow you all will vote.Don’t orget that. You allshould arrive in time at thevoting station tomorrow.Otherwise I will lose the by-election!” Daw Aung San SuuKyi told the crowd rom theveranda o a house.Beore she entered thehouse, she added: “I hope tosee you more oten!”The ground in ront o thehouse where Daw Aung SanSuu Kyi was staying had beenlit up by battery-poweredlamps and was packed withresidents and journalists. A pandal had been set up inthe compound o the houseand Kayin girls perormed aolk dance (
done-yein
) as Daw Aung San Sui Kyi watchedon.“I eel so happy because Amay Su is staying our village.I’ve never seen a scene likethis beore. All the people,including the children, aregreeting and welcoming her.I’ve never seen her this closeup beore either,” said Ko SaHein Min Zar, a resident o WaThein Ka.Daw Sein May, a 60-year-old resident who had cometo see Daw Aung San SuuKyi, said she was still unsurehow she’d vote, as she’d neverdone it beore.“I don’t know who I’ll voteor. But I will see. I think I likeall o them,” she said.It is an indication o how ar Myanmar’s transition todemocracy had not ltereddown rom the hluttawsand government oices inNay Pyi Taw that there weremany villagers like Daw SeinMay who didn’t know how tovote. Some didn’t even know how to use a ballpoint penand had trouble marking their ballot orms, saidNLD member Ko Win Aye, aresident o neighbouring YaKhine Su village. He said NLDmembers had gone door todoor teaching people how tomark the ballot paper.“Firstly, I asked them whichone is their avorite. Then,show them how to mark in thebox. We taught them clearly how to vote or their avoriteparty and how to make surethey don’t cast an invalidvote. We villagers oten usedto mark all the boxes,” saidKo Win Aye. At 7am on April 1 Daw Aung San Suu Kyi visited onepolling station at Wa TheinKa, located in the village’smiddle school. Ater meeting with some voters and electioncommission oicials, shevisited other voting stationson the road back to Yangon. Among the many visitorsto Kawhmu on April 1 –along with local and oreign journalists, diplomats andelection monitors – wasUnion Election Commissionchairman U Tin Aye, whovisited the Kawhmu TownshipElection Sub-Commissionoice and met with U Tin Yi, the candidate or theUnity and Peace Party. Healso visited Ma Gyi Kanvoting station but reused toanswer any questions romreporters. At 4pm voting stationsclosed and counting began.News o an NLD victory wasquickly released, prompting a surge o motorbikes andarm vehicles, known as
trawlergyi
, to hit the streetsin celebration.“We can’t even expresshow happy we are right now … I’d like to say to Amay Su,‘Our duty is accomplished’,”said U Hla Aung, a residento Kawhmu’s Phayar Lanquarter.“And I’d like to say to Amay Su to do perectly the threeissues she mentioned,” hesaid, reerring to the party’sthree campaign promiseso national peace, rule o law and amending theconstitution.
– Translated by Thiri Min Htun
Happy days: Kawmhu and Daw Suu
By Aung Si Hein andZon Pann Pwint
CANDIDATES who contested the by-election in the outer Yangon suburb o Dagon Seikkan said they were satisied with the electoral process but oundcampaigning dicult.The seat was won by Dr Myo Aung o the National League or Democracy with36,126 votes rom 81,674 eligible votersacross 14 quarters and our villages,according to igures provided by theelection commission.“The majority o those living in Dagon Seikkan are workers,armers and pensioners.Many o them have to work all aternoon and come back only in the evening so this was the only time we couldcampaign,” said U Kyee Myint,the candidate rom the NationalDemocratic Force. “But at thattime the electricity was otenout and we didn’t dare go romhouse to house in the dark.”“From the election campaignI came to realise that this area needsattention rom local and internationalnon-government organisations because itis quite under developed,” he said.U Win Myint o the National Unity Party said his campaign had altered because he“couldn’t attract young people” during theshort campaign period.“The National League or Democracy could unite the majority o young people …that is the biggest diculty or other parties who competed against it,” he said. Winner Dr Myo Aung said he hadbeen impressed with the level o interestDagon Seikkan residents had shown inthe by-elections. “The political awarenesso residents in Dagon Seikkan was muchhigher than we expected … more than30,000 supporters attended when Daw Aung San Suu Kyi came to Dagon Seikkan,”he said.However, journalists and NLD memberssaid they encountered diculties whentrying to monitor vote counting at somepolling stations in 88 quarter.“When I arrived Basic Education HighSchool 1, which was the polling station orThawka 4 Street in 88 quarter, our groupreported to watch the vote counting. Theperson in charge o the station didn’t allow us to get inside, saying that there werealready ve people who had registered to watch,” says Ko Myat Kyaw, a member o NLD’s campaign team in Dagon Seikkan.“He wouldn’t conirm who was in thestation when we asked.”He added that a woman in charge o polling station 5 in 88 quarter shouted atreporters and party members when they approached the station to watch votecounting.“She said she wouldn’t count any morevotes until we let. There were many residents anxiously waiting outside thestation to know the result, so the residentsbecome worried that they wouldn’t countanymore and asked us to leave as quickly as possible,” he added.But Ma Nwe Nwe Win, who monitoredthe count at a polling station in 89 quarter,said the teachers in charge o station were “very organised”.“They showed each ballot usto conirm [its validity]; they were very air.”Junichi Fukasawa, theBangkok bureau chie o Japan’s
Yomiuri Shimbun
,said he had ound it “very easy” to get access to polling stations on April 1, in contrastto the 2010 election when he was denied a visa. He was oneo several oreign journalistsand election observers in Dagon Seikkanor the poll.“The atmosphere today is very natural,like in Japan,” Mr Fukasawa said as hevisited a poll station in 94 quarter. “The by-election is ree and air until this moment.People are enjoying the democracy. Twodays ago in a press conerence, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi said there were [irregularities]but I think the situation is not that bad andnot serious.”
Parties struggle or Dagon Seikkan win
By Kyaw Hsu Mon and Yamon Phuthit
IT’S ater 4pm and a largecrowd has gathered tohear the results o the pollat the National League orDemocracy’s township ocein Mingalar Taung Nyunt. Theatmosphere and size o thegathering contrasts sharply with the 2010 general election,and many comments that iteels like 1990 all over again.The crowd on the recently concreted Myanma Gone Yi Road includes those whovoted earlier in the day, along with a sizeable number romtownships where no by-elections were held. They cheer as the results o eacho the 20 wards – along withother constituencies acrossthe country – are read out, oneater the other, and tallied upon a large chalkboard leaning against a tree. With only hal a dozen o the ward results conirmed, it’sclear that the NLD’s candidate,Daw Phyu Phyu Thin, is ontrack or a landslide win, aresult conirmed two dayslater in the state press.The township’s 102,000eligible voters had a strong ield o ive candidates tochoose rom but most turnedout to support the NLD.“They are really excitedto vote or the NLD on by-election day – everybody lookshappy,” a journalist rom
The Voice
said.Ma Aye Aye Mar, a housewierom Kantaw Lay East ward,said she was both nervous andexcited to cast her vote.“I didn’t want my vote to berejected,” she said. “I votedor Daw Phyu Phyu Thin. Ididn’t go to vote in the 2010election because the NLDdidn’t contest.”Ma July, a 27-year-old bank employee, said she voted orthe USDP in 2010 because herather was a civil servant butthis time she backed the NLDcandidate.“I believed that Daw PhyuPhyu Thin can help developour township,” she said.However, erroneous voterlists were also an issue inMingalar Taung Nyunt, withsome missing out on thechance to vote.Democratic Party (Myanmar) campaignmanager U Hla Myint saidhis party had tallied up morethan 133,000 voters but thecommission did not acceptthe party’s additions on March24.NLD township chairmanU Khin Soe said about 100residents o Lutlat Yay ward were unable to vote.“Most have lived there orlong time but they are not onthe list. We’ve collected thisdata and will send it to thehead oce but residents alsoneed to check the voter listsbeore election day,” he said.Daw Phyu Phyu Thin told
The Myanmar Times
ollowing her win that she wouldimplement the promises thatshe would be loyal to both thedesires o her constituentsand the party.One o her opponents, UThu Wai o the DemocraticParty, said he would re-contest the seat, which helost narrowly to U Aung Kyiin 2010, in the next generalelection.“All candidates triedtheir best,” he said. “Thisis a very good sign or ourdemocracy.”
Mingalar Taung Nyuntcomes alive or vote
From the election campaign I came torealise that this area needs attentionfrom local and international NGOs.
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi with children, some in traditiona Kayin dress, in Wa Thin Ka village in Kawhmu township onMarch 31, the day before she won a seat in parliament.
Pic: Ko Taik
By-elections
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April 9 - 15, 2012
Y
ANGON – Daw Aung SanSuu Kyi hailed a “new era”or Myanmar and called orpolitical unity ater her party swept to victory in the April 1 by-elections.The National League orDemocracy (NLD) won 43 o the44 seats it contested in the by-elections and is set to becomethe main opposition orce in thenational parliament, ollowing the release o oicial results on April 3.The landslide win in the by-elections gave Daw Aung San SuuKyi a seat in parliament or the irsttime, although it will not threatenthe comortable majority o themilitary-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP).Supporters, some shedding tearso delight, celebrated into the nightater the NLD declared that Daw Aung San Suu Kyi had secured aseat in the poll.“This is not so much our triumphas a triumph or people who havedecided that they must be involvedin the political process in thiscountry,” Daw Aung San Suu Kyisaid in a victory speech at herparty headquarters in Yangon on April 2.“We hope this will be thebeginning o a new era.”Daw Aung San Suu Kyi struck aconciliatory tone towards the otherpolitical parties as she preparesto take her place in a parliamentthat will remain dominated by themilitary and its political allies.“We hope that allparties that took part in the elections will be in a positionto cooperate withus in order tocreate a genuinely democraticatmosphere in ournation,” she said. As a lawmakerand oppositionleader inparliament, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi will have an unprecedented voicein the legislative process, and herparty is already looking ahead tothe next general election, in 2015.“Obviously they want to win thenext election comprehensively andbe able to set up a governmentin their own right,” said Trevor Wilson, a Myanmar expert at the Australian National University.The NLD won 37 seats in the440-seat lower house, along withour in the upper house and two inthe regional chambers, the resultsshowed.One quarter o the seats arereserved or appointed military oicials.The NLD lost one seat in northernShan State to the Shan NationalitiesDemocratic Party, which has strong support among ethnic minorities.The USDP took just one seat, in aconstituency in northwest Sagaing Region where the NLD candidate was disqualiied.Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s electionto political oice marks the latestsweeping change ater decades o outright military rule ended last year.President U Thein Sein hailed thepolls as a success last week.“The election was heldsuccessully,” the ormer generalsaid in brie remarks to reporterson the sidelines o a meeting with ellow ASEANleaders in PhnomPenh.Observers say thegovernment needsDaw Aung San SuuKyi in parliamentto bolster thelegitimacy o itspolitical systemand spur aneasing o Westernsanctions.The European Union opened adebate on April 3 on how ast tolit sanctions, with a senior EUdiplomat saying that the bloc wasleaning towards “a substantialliting o sanctions with some redlines”.The United States indicated itplanned urther reconciliationgestures with Myanmar in the nearuture.“We are prepared to matchpositive steps o reorm in Burma with steps o our own,” StateDepartment spokeswoman VictoriaNuland told reporters.The ASEAN leaders called orall Western sanctions againstMyanmar to be lited in light o the vote.“The liting o sanctions would contribute positively tothe democratic process andespecially economic developmento Myanmar,” a top Cambodianoicial told reporters, quoting leaders inside the meeting room. At the last ASEAN Summit inNovember, Myanmar was rewardedor its reorms by being promisedthe bloc’s chairmanship in 2014. Itis also eager to win greater oreigninvestment with the prospect o sanctions being lited.Unlike in the 2010 generalelections, the Myanmar governmentallowed oreign observers and journalists to witness the by-elections, which were to replacelawmakers who gave up their seatsto join the government. –
AFP
Myanmar on cusp o new era,says Daw Aung San Suu Kyi
National League for Democracy supporters gathered outside the party’s Yangon headquarters react as results come in from constituencies across the country on April 1.
This is not so much our triumph as a triumphfor people who have decided that they mustbe involved in the political process.
By-elections
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April 9 - 15, 2012
Pic: Kaung Htet
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