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Will Burma's historic election loosen military's long-standing grip on power?
Highlights
With tremendous excitement and hope, millions of citizens voted on Sunday in Burma’s historic general election that will test whether the military’s long-standing grip on power can be loosened, with opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s party expected to secure an easy victory.
With tremendous excitement and hope, millions of citizens voted on Sunday in Burma’s historic general election that will test whether the military’s long-standing grip on power can be loosened, with opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s party expected to secure an easy victory.
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In a country that was under military rule for almost a half-century, many of the eligible 30 million voters cast ballots for the first time in what was been billed as the nation’s freest election ever.
It was the first time even for Suu Kyi, the epitome of the democracy movement who had defied the junta for decades. Wearing her trademark thazin flowers in her hair, a smiling Suu Kyi arrived at the polling station on Sunday near her lakeside residence, where she was mobbed by hundreds of journalists. She quickly cast her vote. Many people lined up in Buddhist temples, schools and government buildings early in the morning to vote, well before a heavy downpour beat down in Yangon an hour before voting ended peacefully with no reports of major irregularities or violence.
Vote counting began immediately, and hundreds of supporters gathered under umbrellas at the opposition NLD’s office, where unofficial results were to be shown on large TV screens through the night.
80 per cent people exercise franchise
Voting in Burma’s landmark general election closed on Sunday afternoon after a massive turnout.
Polling stations across the country were closed at 9.30 am (GMT), Union Election Commission deputy director Thant Zin Aung said, adding early indications were that “around 80 percent of voters turned out on Sunday.” All through the day voters emerged onto Burma’s streets, patiently waiting under a tropical sun in snaking queues.
Among them supporters of Aung San Suu Kyi's pro-democracy party hope their mark on the ballot will overhaul a country cramped for decades by ulcerous junta rule.
Some smiled, others wore a more determined look as they voted in an election many have craved for a generation but almost dared not believe would happen.
Suu Kyi casts first-ever ballot
Though championed worldwide as a pro-democracy icon, there is something Aung San Suu Kyi was unable to do until Sunday: vote.
The 70-year-old smiled but said nothing to waiting reporters as she cast her ballot at a polling station near the lakeside villa that served as her prison when the country was under dictatorship.
Nyan Win, a spokesman for Suu Kyi’s opposition NLD, confirmed it was a first for “The Lady.” Suu Kyi is Burma’s most popular politician and, if the elections are credible, the NLD is widely expected to win the largest number of seats in parliament. Though that could pave the way for an NLD presidency, it won't be Suu Kyi. A clause in the constitution, clearly penned with her in mind, bars her from the top job.
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