Election Day Has Arrived: Burma Election Tracker Online!

By Burma Partnership • November 7, 2010

On 27 May 1990, the people of Burma gathered in the millions to participate in a historic election – one that resulted in a landslide victory for the National League for Democracy (NLD) and other democracy and ethnic parties. The regime never recognized the results of the elections and has instead retained a firm grip on power through repressive military rule.

Now, nearly twenty years later, the regime has held another election. Sadly, the elections have failed to fulfill the very principles at the heart of democratic elections.

From day one, the electoral process has failed to be democratic or inclusive, drawing criticism from within Burma and the international community. Reports on Burma Election Tracker lend evidence to such criticism; the hundreds of incident reports collected even before the day of elections highlight the systematic and widespread scale of election violations to date. The unfree and unfair election process has already ensured that the elections will not reflect the will of the people of Burma.

However, some have called for critics of the elections to “wait and see”.

Today, on the day of elections, we invite you to join us in tracking the elections through personal interviews, media articles and citizen reports documented on the website. Together, we can follow the elections, and see the developments as they occur over the next few weeks.

The information gathered on this site is a testament to the will of Burma’s democracy and human rights activist networks inside and outside the country – given the military’s draconian restrictions on reporting and freedom of speech, what is remarkable is the fact that these personal stories have even been able to make their way out of the country. The reports are thanks to a vast network of media reporters, activists, citizens in Burma, migrants, and Burma’s diaspora.

The reports are organized by location (state, division, or large townships), as well as by category. This function will allow you to look at the reports that you are interested in – for example vote buying, or violations generally occurring in Arakan State, or the targeting of ethnic communities. A visually interesting function is the overlay option on the map. Near the top right hand corner, there is a blue button with a plus sign. This function allows viewers to visually overlay reports from the various categories on a map of Burma, to see which types of violations have been occurring in different areas in the country at the same time.

Information will be constantly updated on the site, with new stories, data, and images pouring in by the hour. We will be adding fresh content, new overlays, updated analysis and updates daily during this very intense and chaotic time. In order to ensure that we can create the most comprehensive collection of election-related reports available, we will continue to interview citizens, collect stories from trusted inside networks, map media reports, and receive stories from the diaspora throughout the month of November.

If Burma were a truly free and democratic country, with an uncensored media and open communications networks, news about the elections would be immediately available to its citizens and the international community. However, given that Burma is absolutely unfree, and these elections are incontrovertibly unfair, the communities behind Burma Election Tracker will dedicate their efforts throughout the month to provide viewers with what the regime has tried so hard to suppress: a true picture of what really happened during the elections on 7 November 2010.

Tags: 2010 Elections, Burma Election Tracker, Burma Partnership

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Election Day Has Arrived: Burma Election Tracker Online!

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