[Altsean-Burma] 24-30 August 2010 Election Watch highlights

Sep 1st, 2010

Dear Friends,

Below are the “2010 Election Watch” highlights for Week 25, covering 24-30 August:

Developments

  • Union Democracy Party Chairman Thein Htay said that the party had decided to field only three candidates nationwide to protest the SPDC election laws. National Democratic Force leader Khin Muang Swe said he would not stand for election because of the SPDC Election Commission’s restrictions.
  • Union Solidarity and Development Party officials forcibly recruited party members during an SPDC-sponsored children’s vaccination program in Rangoon Division. Meanwhile, SPDC officials in Rangoon’s Kyauktada Township coerced people to join the Union Solidarity and Development Party.
  • Swan Arr Shin thugs intimidated, attacked, and injured Union of Myanmar Federation of National Politics members while they campaigned in Poung Kyo Village in Shwedaung Township, Pegu Division.
  • The 88 Generation Students Youths (Union of Myanmar), the Union of Myanmar Federation of National Politics, and the Myanmar Democracy Congress submitted a joint letter to the SPDC Election Commission requesting that it extend the 30 August deadline to submit candidate lists.
  • The SPDC Election Commission approved the registration of the National Development and Peace Party. To date, the Election Commission has approved the registration of 42 parties out of the 47 that applied to contest the polls.

For more developments click here

Reactions

  • Daw Aung San Suu Kyi called on the Burmese people to “speak out if the [election] process is not in accordance with the election law or if it is not balanced.”
  • New Mon State Party Chairman Htaw Mon said that the NMSP “cannot see this election as a roadmap to open genuine democracy and ethnic unity.”
  • A Shan Nationals Democratic Party member said that while the party was trying to abide by the rules, the Union Solidarity and Development Party was “operating above the law.”
  • National Democratic Force leader Khin Maung Swe called the two week candidate registration period a “deliberate attempt” by the SPDC Election Commission to “put young political parties […] in a tight corner”.

For more reactions click here

You can find comprehensive monitoring of the 2010 elections on the “2010 Election Watch” website. The Election Watch summarizes developments according to indicators drawn from UN, OSCE, and EU guidelines. You can also join our 2010 Election Watch facebook page to receive the latest Election Watch updates.

Yours, in solidarity,

ALTSEAN-Burma

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