Australia urged to use clout to ensure free and fair Myanmar poll

Australia urged to do more to ensure elections are free and fair amid claims the process is being interfered with by the Government.

Source: SBS

Australia is not doing enough to ensure Myanmar's coming elections are free and fair, despite helping to fund them, said a pro-opposition activist.

Thousands of Myanmar nationals across the world have been shut out of advance voting, two weeks before the election which is seen as a landmark test of the reform process.

Sydney-based doctor, Hnin Sandar Htay, says she applied for an early ballot two months ago, only to find her name absent from the early-voter list just days before the October 17^th pre-voting date.

“I was so disappointed because this is the biggest, most important moment in decades, to have this opportunity to change our country” she said.

“They’re making a trick” she said, “to make it hard for people to vote”.

There have been widespread complaints from Myanmar nationals abroad – including in Singapore, Thailand and Australia – about irregularities and being shut out of advance voting.

Myanmar nationals in Australia told SBS, their names weren’t on any lists, or were not registered with Myanmar’s Embassy in Canberra.

The Embassy did not respond to SBS enquiries about the complaints.

However, in Myanmar the UEC has said, of around two-million registered workers abroad, just 34-thousand registered to vote in time.

Critics of Myanmar’s electoral process said Australia’s funding contribution to next month’s parliamentary elections in Myanmar obliges it to do more to ensure the poll is free and fair.

Activist, Dr Myint Cho, of the Sydney-based Burma Centre, said the fact the UEC is led by a former general means it can’t be impartial.

“The Australian Government should use its economic and political clout to press the Election Commission to do the right thing,” said Dr Cho.

Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs has confirmed it’s indirectly funding Myanmar’s Union Electoral Commission, which is running the polls, seen as a key test of Myanmar’s shift toward democracy.

The Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said it is providing $4 million to help strengthen the UEC’s capacity, including $1 million to train poll workers, and another $3 million, via the International Foundation for Electoral Systems.

Some observers expect Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy  to do well enough – in a credible election – to lead a coalition of smaller parties.