BURMA’S VOTERS gave a resounding seal of approval to Nobel Prize-winning democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi yesterday as she won a seat in parliament in a historic byelection, the first free polls in two decades.
Supporters gathered outside the headquarters of the National League of Democracy and cheered wildly when the party said she had won her seat.
If the result is confirmed, this would be Ms Suu Kyi’s first official role in politics in Burma in more than two decades of fighting oppression in this southeast Asian nation. She missed the previous two elections, in 1990 and in 2010, because she was under house arrest in Rangoon.
Burma is a poor country, but it is rich in resources, and both the West and China are competing for influence in the country of 60 million that borders China and India.
The NLD is contesting 44 out of 45 seats in the byelection and, in unconfirmed tallies, it said it had won over 80 per cent of the vote.
When the election results will be announced is not clear, but the government has promised to release results within a week.
Ms Suu Kyi was released from house arrest in November 2010, six days after a general election that paved the way for the end of 49 years of direct army rule, even though many elected were military officers. Her NLD party did not take part in those elections.
President Thein Sein was a general in the former military junta which took power in a 1962 coup in the former British colony. He also freed political prisoners, relaxed censorship, permitted trade unions, spoke to ethnic rebels in the border region, and allowed the NLD to re-register as a political party.
Ms Suu Kyi had complained last week about irregularities and there have been reports of voters being harassed, but the military government will hope the reported infractions do not prove enough to undo their efforts to secure an end to European and US sanctions.
Western powers have indicated they might lift a tough range of sanctions if the elections are confirmed to have been free and fair.
In 1988, the junta, led by dictator Ne Win, ordered a crackdown and killed about 3,000 student protesters. The international community turned against the junta and many of these sanctions were introduced in response to human rights abuses and broader oppression, such as the violent crackdown on democracy in 2007, that have kept Burma, also known as Myanmar, isolated ever since.
The government’s reform efforts were rewarded last November when Hillary Clinton made the first visit there by a US secretary of state since 1955.
Any freeing-up of sanctions is likely to lead to a surge in business activity in Burma, including by firms from Ireland. Much of this will revolve around tourism, although Ms Suu Kyi has already said tourists should come back to Burma. They are also exploring other areas, including telecoms, manufacturing and resources.
