Mizzima Burmese

Burmese people started voting at 6 a.m. for a new government for the first time in 20 years, amid extensive reports of vote-rigging and coercion by the main junta-backed party, in collusion with electoral authorities.

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People wait to vote outside a polling station in South Okkalapa Township, Rangoon, on Sunday, November 7, 2010. Exit interviews show an early swing to the National Democratic Force party and independents, away from Rangoon Mayor and regime-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party candidate, Aung Thein Lin. Photo: Mizzima
Early voter turnout in the former capital of Rangoon and major cities has been high, but in rural and ethnic areas, voters have been noticeably slower to appear at polling stations.
In South Okkalapa Township, indications are that the National Democratic Force party and independents were gathering more support than Rangoon Mayor and regime-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) candidate Aung Thein Lin, judging by early exit interviews conducted by Mizzima correspondents.

The Burmese have not had the chance of electing their own government since 1990, when Nobel Peace Prize laureate and pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her party the National League for Democracy (NLD) won with an overwhelming 80 per cent of seats. The junta however never relinquished power a military regime has been ruling the country since.
But this time around, the NLD is boycotting the elections and has been dissolved for failing to re-register by a May deadline as a political party.

The State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) has said these elections were going to be free and fair and would lead to the transition to a civilian and democratic government, but international observers, governments, human rights groups and advocates of the boycott inside Burma have denounced the polls as a “sham” and a “farce” designed to reinstate military rule.

State-media in Burma has warned against a boycott and has stated via its mouthpiece, the New Light of Myanmar, that if a boycott crippled elections today, the junta would have no choice but to continue to reign all-powerful, and that another election could “take a very long time”.
The junta-funded USDP is understandably confident of victory amid innumerable accounts of vote-buying, voter-harassment and intimidation.
US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said the elections “expose the abuses of the military junta”, the BBC reported today.

The Australian government said it had “very grave reservations about the elections” and condemned the “patently unfair election laws that place severe restrictions on political parties”.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s government said it welcomed the more forthright comments from Asean members the Philippines and Indonesia regarding the elections. Both countries also called for the immediate release of all political prisoners including Suu Kyi.
Despite criticism of the military regime, Australian officials had said it would be increasing the aid it sends Burma from US$29.1 million in 2009-2010, to US$48.6 million this year.
Voting would not be taking place in many ethnic areas because of junta-imposed bans, the regime said, citing danger in “black” areas controlled by armed ethnic ceasefire and non-ceasefire militias:Read..M.. Mizzima Burmese