The announcement of November 7 as the date for elections has sparked off a race to boycott the elections by various ethnic groups.  An article highlights the troubled path where various ethnic and political groups including the NLD are following to stay away from the elections on the plea that the Junta will manipulate these elections and hence they need to be boycotted. Large areas of Burma are controlled by the Wa and other groups such as the Karen, Kachin and Mon. This article depicts the ethnic mood.

The stickers, bearing the message “It is our right to vote or not to vote in the 2010 election,” are part of a boycott campaign launched by the activist movement Generation Wave. They are appearing in public places ranging from bus shelters to shopping centers.

The election laws prohibit Suu Kyi and more than 2,000 other political prisoners from participating in the election. Suu Kyi has said the election is “absolutely unlikely” to be free and fair, and political parties will not have enough time to campaign.

Burma’s election will be insignificant without the participation of pro-democracy leaderAung San Suu Kyi, according to Htay Kywe, one of the imprisoned leaders of the 88 Generation Students group, who is currently serving a 65-year sentence in western Burma.

As the date for registering parties for the election draws closer(Aug 30), the political parties who want to participate are finding it difficult to field candidates in at least three constituencies. According to the junta’s Political Parties Registration Law, a  party must contest in at least three constituencies and meet the minimum number of party members within 90 days after its registration as a party was approved; failure could lead to its dissolution. Opposition parties complain that, due to the short period allowed for candidate registration and their lack of funding, they will be able to compete for only a limited number of the 498 seats in the national parliament. The regime’s election laws stipulate that if there is only a single candidate in a constituency, then he or she wins the seat—meaning that the junta’s proxy parties are guaranteed victory in many constituencies.

The gagging of media and ban on anti election or anti Junta articles is another major stumbling block towards conduct of free and fair elections.

“We don’t have any freedom of information now, and we won’t have it in the future,” said a journalist in Rangoon. “It is obvious that there will be no media freedom during the election. There is no way that this election will be fair without media freedom.”

In May 2008, the military regime did not allow domestic media to publish any reports critical of the proposed constitution, and it prevented publications from talking to voters and gathering news at polling stations.

Then there is another twist to manipulating the elections. The election commission is apparantly delaying registration of opposition parties mainly the Kachin State Progressive Party (KSPP) and other Kachin parties until shortly before the election in order to prevent them from carrying out campaign-related activities. In the meantime, the government-backed Union and Solidarity Development Party (USDP), which has many Kachin members, is free to conduct its activities and campaign in Kachin State. The USDP is also understood to be planning the establishment of an alternative, pro-government party led by Kachin who are members of the USDP.

Then there is the issue of Junta reserving seats for itself in both houses. As per latest regulations both houses of parliament will reserve a quarter of all seats for serving military officers [110 out of 440 in the national level parliament and 56 out of 224 in the upper house]. In April, Prime Minister Thein Sein and more than 20 other senior generals with ministerial portfolios resigned from the military and registered with the new pro-government Union Solidarity and Development Party to contest the elections. The Burmese junta is to undertake a huge military reshuffle next week, after which 10 officers at the rank of lieutenant general ranks are to retire to participate in the recently announced general elections on November 7, a source at the Ministry of Defence said late yesterday, as per Mizzima.

“No one should be fooled. The generals may be exchanging their khakis for civilian clothes, but these polls are still a carefully arranged plan to keep power in the hands of the military junta,” Elaine Pearson, acting chief of Human Rights Watch Asia Division, said.

The group said it also had concerns that intimidation of people and political parties would intensify.

Amongst such diverse machinations of the election process, it is indeed tough for the international community to participate in monitoring the election process. When viewed in perspective, the elections process must throw open more options for any meaningful solution. Mass manipulation will only marginalise Myanmar in the international arena with more sanctions, while internally there would be no change in the lives of its millions.