Burma concludes referendum polling, but results 'pre-determined,' voters say

Mungpi

Sunday, 11 May 2008 01:10

New Delhi - With polling stations open from 6 a.m, to 4 p.m, Burmese people on Saturday tasted a sense of democracy for the first time in 18 years, but several voters said the polls were just a show and that the results have long been determined by the ruling generals. While voters cast their ballots across Burma Saturday, except in cyclone-hit areas, many feared their votes would make no difference as the ruling junta has already collected many votes in advance. In an interview with voters in Mandalay, Burma's second largest city, several voters said they were turned away by the polling station officer, who said their votes had previously been collected. "I did not know that my vote had been collected in advance until I arrived at the polling station, where the station officer told me," a woman told Mizzima. "I did not get a chance to vote," she added. "It is a crime," to turn voters away from the polling booths and tell them that their votes have been collected in advance, David Scott Mathieson, Burma consultant for Human Rights Watch, said. A voter in Kachin state's Moe Nyin town said only a few people showed up to vote. But he said those who made it to the station were people who were determined to vote against the junta's draft constitution, which critics say will entrench military rule in Burma. "Others are scared and have voted in advance," he said. A local resident in Monywa town of Sagaing division told Mizzima that the authorities had gone house-to-house over the last few weeks and collected votes in advance from elderly people and government servants. "And all of these advance votes are 'yes' votes because the people are made to choose in front of the authorities. So, today's polling is just a show," said the local resident, who said he voted 'no' despite threats from authorities. Throughout the day, the government broadcast on state-run television and radio songs that exhorted the people to go to the polling stations and vote in favor of the draft constitution. "I won't be surprised if the result of the polls turn out in favor of the draft constitution," Mathieson said. The atmosphere leading up to the referendum was not free or fair, Mathieson said, and it was evident that the Burmese junta has been doing all it could to ensure it got the result it wanted. While station officials counted the votes after polls closed, there has been no announcement of results from any station. Sources in the Burmese military establishment earlier told Mizzima that all the counted votes will be sent to Nay Pyi Taw, Burma's new capital, where the overall result will be declared. Several voters said this gives the junta enormous opportunity to rig the votes as it wishes. In Arakan state, the chairman of Burma's main opposition party – the National League for Democracy – said nearly 98 percent of votes in one of the villages voted against the constitution. "But the sad thing is that out of the entire 'no' votes, about 60 percent are declared abstentions by the station commissioner," he said. The NLD chairman said he had learned this form his informants, whom he had placed among the polling station officials. In central Burma's Myingyan Township, voters told Mizzima that members of the junta-backed women affairs groups acted more openly and roughly by snatching the ballot papers from voters and put tick marks in support of the draft constitution. Burma Campaign UK's director, Mark Farmaner, said the junta would apply every means to approve the constitution. "We are expecting a 'yes' vote because the regime is doing everything they can to rig it," Farmaner said. < Prev   Next >