Human Rights and Burma Election 2010

လူ႕အခြင့္အရး ကာကြယ္ျမွင့္တင္သူမ်ားကြန္ယက္ (HRDP) မွထုတ္ျပန္လိုက္ေသာ ေရြးေကာက္ပြဲေလ့လာသံုးသပ္ေရး အစီရင္ခံစာသည္ ၂၀၁၀ ျမန္မာ့ေရြးေကာက္ပြဲကို ကာလသံုးပိုင္းခြဲကာ စစ္ေဆးသံုးသပ္ထားသည္ […]

Elections Marred By Regime’s Campaign Restrictions, Harassment and Lack of Voter Education

“In my region, many people were not interested in the elections, and didn’t know anything about the elections. There was no electoral education and people who knew about elections were afraid of getting into trouble. I don’t think the elections will bring any betterment to people. I see the elections are designed for the military regime.”

– A voter in Sagaing Division

During the elections, the regime took extensive measures to limit election participation at all levels; from restricting political party participation to blocking free flow of information on the elections, the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) ensured that they would be able to dominate and control the process from beginning to end. Ethnic parties and ethnic voters were particularly marginalized and suppressed as the Election Commission rejected leading ethnic parties and candidates, security forces hassled ethnic parties, and ethnic voters received little to no electoral education. By limiting such participation, the regime effectively stifled opposition from political parties and the electorate on the day of the polls.[…]

Repression Continues While Observers Naïvely Seek to “Wait and See”

More than six weeks following the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC)’s elections to install a superficially civilian government dominated by the military and its allies, the reality on the ground in Burma has not changed for the better. The military regime continues to wage war against armed ethnic groups, the media, and the democratic forces working for progress. This repressive environment will undoubtedly remain in place as the same regime pursues identical oppressive policies from expensive new parliament buildings. Critics of the elections are asked again and again to “wait and see” before condemning the new parliament, but it begs the question: are the “pragmatic” supporters of the elections simply naïve? […]

Burma’s Chin People Face Continuing Poverty and Human Rights Violations in Aftermath of Sham Election

Forced labour, religious discrimination and acute poverty continue to cause intense suffering in Chin State, western Burma, according to testimonial evidence received by a delegation led by Baroness Cox, Chief Executive of the Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust (HART), which returned last week from the India-Burma border […]

Review on the Flawed Election

[…] A review of the 2010 elections and the flawed results by 10 activist organizations inside Burma. The organizations conclude that the military system will continue to prevail in Burma because the post-election parliament will be dominated by the military and the junta-backed USDP. They propose tasks for the incoming parliament, pledge to continue to improve their coordination and cooperation to work in unity, and express their support for Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the National League for Democracy and the Committee Representing People Parliament […]

Myanmar after the Elections: A Call for Essential Comprehensive Electoral Reform

In the statement, ANFREL provides recommendations regarding structural changes, voter registration, parties and candidates, campaign period, union election commission, media, and advance voting & the counting process […]

Abuses of Government Authority During Elections Highlight Un-Rule of Law in Burma

“Although we don’t like the USDP, all the villagers including me voted for the USDP since we were ordered by the town authorities to vote for the USDP. We were afraid while we were voting since the authorities were watching on us at the polling station, to see if were voting for them or not.”

– A voter in Shan State

Throughout the elections, the regime exercised gross abuses of authority in a widespread attempt to dominate and manipulate the elections to their advantage. From publically supporting the regime-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), to employing the Union Election Commission to unlawfully influence voters, to forcing vast numbers of voters to support the USDP or face consequences such as fines, demotions, or arrests, the regime was involved in the elections at all levels. The Election Commission’s blatant favoritism highlights the way in which the elections have been structured to further the regime’s plans to entrench military rule. Certainly, the regime’s handpicked Election Commission and undemocratic election laws are indicative of the severe lack of rule of law in Burma – where laws are structured to be used against the people, rather than to protect their rights […]

Burma: Visit to the India-Burma Border

“We have been ruled by the army for 48 years. The army has killed our hopes.” – A Chin pastor

“The elections amount to nothing more than a change of clothes for the military. They are completely unacceptable.” – A Chin refugee

In eastern Burma, the regime is carrying out military offensives against ethnic civilians, resulting in the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people and rape, torture, forced labour and killings. Civilians, including women, children and the elderly, are sometimes shot at point-blank range. In western and northern Burma, the regime is also cruelly suppressing the ethnic nationalities, although the tactics vary […]

Silencing Dissent: The Ongoing Imprisonment of Burma’s Political Activists in the Lead up to the 2010 Elections

This AAPP’s report, Silencing Dissent, documents the ongoing imprisonment of political activists, individuals associated with activists, as well as ordinary civilians peacefully expressing their basic civil and political rights occurred during 2009 and 2010 […]

The Foreign Affairs Committee of the Czech Parliament condemns Burma’s elections and welcomes the release of Aung San Suu Kyi

The Foreign Affairs Committee of the Parliament of the Czech Republic has published a resolution on Burma on the 24th November 2010 calling on the Burmese regime to start a dialogue with the opposition and ethnic groups and enable them to fully participate in the political life. The Committee has also welcomed the release of Burmese leading dissident Aung San Suu Kyi but brought the attention to the fact that there are still over 2 100 political prisoners held in Burmese prisons. The resolution has also mentioned the recent elections in Burma which were labeled as illegitimate […]