An Analysis of the Elections in Burma in 2010 and the Following Period

By Burma Lawyers Council • March 7, 2010

For the past fifty years, military dictators have ruled Burma destroying the economy, abolishing rule of law, and perpetuating thousands of human rights violations against its own population. The military regime known as the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) regularly enlists child soldiers, uses sexual violence against the civilian population, has forcibly displaced and destroyed over 3,000 ethnic villages, and carries out executions with impunity. The state currently holds over 2,000 political prisoners, including Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, and has refused repeated calls for release or trials. The international community’s efforts to both isolate and engage the military junta have failed to produce results. The regime has announced that elections will assuredly be held in 2010 as an implementation of its military-dominated Constitution, which was forcibly approved in May 2008.

The Burma Lawyers’ Council has attempted to produce a comprehensive analysis of the forthcoming 2010 election by scrutinizing the political will of the regime, highlighting historical experiences of elections in Burma with reference to relevant constitutions, exploring election standards that should be applied in Burma, responding to the misconceptions of the international community regarding the 2008 Constitution and 2010 election, analyzing the probability of free and fair elections under current political conditions in Burma, and exploring the issue of impunity arising from the regime’s 2008 Constitution as well as the responsibility of the international community. This paper, in addition, proposes concrete steps for the peaceful democratization of Burma on the basis of Rule of Law and human rights.

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