NAYPYITAW, Burma – International poll monitors and foreign journalists will be barred from Burma’s first election in 20 years, its military rulers said yesterday, deepening concern that next month’s poll will be a sham.
The United States, Britain and Burma’s southeast Asian neighbours had urged the junta to allow independent election monitors at the November 7th election, which critics say will cement the military’s grip on power under the guise of civilian rule.
“We don’t need foreign observers. We have abundant experience in holding elections,” Thein Soe, chairman of the Union Election Commission, told a news conference in the capital, Naypyitaw. “Besides, the election laws enacted are very balanced and easy to understand.”
The election is the first to be held since 1990, when Nobel Peace Prize-winner Aung San Suu Kyi’s opposition party won in a landslide result that was ignored by the military.
Critics say the ruling generals are tightly controlling campaign activities this time to ensure their proxies win most votes and the assemblies will be dominated by their allies.
The 10-state Association of Southeast Asian Nations offered in July to send monitors to help ensure the elections would be internationally recognised as free and fair.
“We don’t need to clarify the credibility of these elections to other people,” said Thein Soe.
Foreign journalists are routinely denied official visas to report inside Burma, but many news organisations had hoped to send media to cover next month’s poll, which will usher in the first civilian government in 48 years.
“Concerning the journalists, there are resident representatives of the international news agencies in our country, and press statements will be released in a timely manner about the elections. So there is no need to allow foreign reporters to cover the elections,” Thein Soe said.
Thomson Reuters, the Association Press, Agence France-Presse, Deutsche Presse-Agentur, European Pressphoto Agency (EPA) and several Japanese news outlets are allowed to operate with accredited local journalists.
Only China’s Xinhua News Agency has permission to employ foreign nationals in the country.
– (Reuters)