Week 30: 2010 Election Watch (28 September – 4 October)

By Altsean-Burma • October 6, 2010

Developments

The SPDC Election Commission rejected the Difference and Peace Party’s transcript for its TV and radio campaign message. It also censored the campaign messages of the All Mon Region Democracy Party, the Chin National Party, and the Shan Nationals Democratic Party.
The SPDC Censorship Board suspended the publication of the Rangoon-based Favourite weekly journal for two weeks for publishing a cartoon on the Union Solidarity and Development Party. The Board also barred domestic news agencies from reporting that Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has the right to vote in the upcoming elections.
The SPDC Election Commission dissolved the People’s New Society Party for failing to complete the party registration process.
Plainclothes police interrogated residents at houses where the All Mon Region Democracy Party held campaign events.
Local SPDC officials in Loikaw Township, Karenni State, and Maungdaw Township, Arakan State, charged residents up to 1,000 kyat (US$0.50-1) for election related expenses.

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Reactions

SPDC FM Nyan Win called the election “virtually inclusive” and said that the SPDC, “with its ample experiences […] in holding multiparty general elections,” was “confident in its ability to conduct the elections in an orderly manner.”
The leader of the pro-SPDC Kachin Defense Army militia said that in its territory, “anyone refusing to vote for [Union Solidarity and Development Party] will be killed.”
US Congress Representative Joseph Crowley called the SPDC’s announcement to release Daw Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest on 13 November a “a ploy to legitimize these unfair elections, and further proof that the junta will do or say just about anything to maintain power.”

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This post is in: 2010 Elections

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