MYANMAR: Hundreds of Aung San Suu Kyi supporters come out to celebrate the upcoming by-election while officials begin to prepare ballot boxes

Record ID: 346530

  • Title: MYANMAR: Hundreds of Aung San Suu Kyi supporters come out to celebrate the upcoming by-election while officials begin to prepare ballot boxes
  • Date: 31st March 2012
  • Summary: CAR DRIVING IN KAWHMU TOWNSHIP EXTERIOR OF VOTING STATION MAN WRITING ON WHITEBOARD EXTERIOR OF VOTING AREAS BALLOT BOX VOTING STATION SIGN SAYING "VOTE HERE" YANGON, MYANMAR (MARCH 29, 2012) (REUTERS) UNION SOLIDARITY AND DEVELOPMENT PARTY (USDP) VAN DRIVING IN THE STREETS MEN PLAYING DRUMS VARIOUS OF USDP VAN DRIVING USDP CONSTITUENCY USDP FLAG PEOPLE WALKING
  • Embargoed: 15th April 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Myanmar, Myanmar
  • Country: Myanmar
  • Topics: Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA3HHPE2QSK9XG1DDZFSM0A1EGF
  • Story Text: Hundreds of Aung San Suu Kyi supporters came out to celebrate in anticipation of the upcoming by-election while officials around the Kawhmu township where Suu Kyi is running begins to prepare ballot boxes Friday evening (March 30).
    Supporters of Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy Party came out in full force in Minglalar Taung Nyunt township in Yangon singing campaign songs and chanting "NLD! NLD!" It wraps up several months of campaigns around the country leading to Sunday's (April 1) historic by-election.
    "The NLD will lead the country and the people accept it. Not only the younger generation, but the older generations will accept it. The entire country knows this, there is no need to count the votes," said NLD supporter Ma Mu.
    "We are praying that Mother Suu will win," said another supporter.
    "I am really happy to have this opportunity because we had to wait so long to get here and we pray that the NLD will win," said Daw San San Myint.
    Dozens of NLD vans drove around the township waving flags and shouting. The party is competing for 44 of the 45 by-election seats and have previously complained of irregularities that could undermine the vote.
    Meanwhile, officials are preparing voting stations. Suu Kyi and Soe Min from the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) are competing for a seat in Parliament in the Kawhmu township. Officials there have begun to set up ballot boxes and voting booths.
    There is little doubt that without Suu Kyi's party's participation, Sunday's by-elections for 45 seats - just 7 percent of the elected seats in a legislature dominated by the military - would have barely registered on the global news agenda. Foreign election observers were not able to enter Myanmar in the November 2010 elections, which the NLD boycotted due to restrictions that prevented members from participating.
    For Sunday's by-elections, the government has invited a small number of election observers including five from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and international media are also welcome to cover the process.
    If the by-elections are deemed free and fair, it could persuade the West to start to lift economic sanctions imposed under the junta.
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