"Myanmar elections may empower Suu Kyi’s party; Longtime opposition leader seeks nation’s return to democracy" by Grant Peck and Jerry Harmer Associated Press November 07, 2015
YANGON, Myanmar — It’s about returning democracy to a nation held hostage to more than a half-century of military rule. It’s about hope for a better life for millions of desperately poor people. It’s about being fully embraced by the international community. But most of all, Myanmar’s general election Sunday might prove to be opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s moment of destiny — a chance to seize the victory the junta stole from her 25 years ago.
Did you know, Suu Kyi is Burmese for CIA?
So Al Gore and John Kerry going to have to wait that long for revenge?
“I believe in my heart that things are going to change for sure,” said lawyer Kyaw Thu Win, sitting in a sea of red party T-shirts and flags at a recent rally that drew tens of thousands of ecstatic Suu Kyi supporters.
Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party and its chief rival, the ruling, military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party, held final rallies Friday, the last day of campaigning before a cooling-off period. Most analysts, observers, and journalists who have toured the country are certain the NLD will win the elections — if they are free and credible.
The fix is already in, and any result to the contrary will be condemned by the West, meaning the EUSraeli Empire.
An NLD-dominated Parliament would be a democratic milestone for a country that was ruled by the military from 1962 to 2011, when — after intense international pressure — it handed power to a nominally civilian government led largely by retired generals. The military still retains many powers, but a majority in Parliament would give the NLD the presidency and control over the shape of the government and lawmaking.
Who do you think calls the shots over here? No president ever shuts down the War Machine.
It will also give hope to many of the ethnic minorities who form 40 percent of the country’s 52 million people.
All right, that's enough. I can't stand this pot-hollering-kettle crapola anymore.
Myanmar is home to some of the world’s longest-running insurgencies, fought in regions where ethnic groups are demanding greater autonomy.
It's a safe bet saying the U.S. is behind those (seeing as they seem to be behind all of them).
“In general, these elections are important because they are the first real indicator of whether the democratic transition is going to take a big step forward or remain in a quasi-civilian middle ground for years to come,” said Thant Myint-U, a historian and government adviser.
You voters better vote the right way then. If not, I'm sure you will be blamed for Myanmar growing closer to China (the real reasons unhappiness and possibly sanctions would be mentioned).
Sunday’s elections are not without flaws, which raise concerns about their impartiality. The chair of the election commission is a supporter of President Thein Sein’s USDP.
PFFFFFFFT!
Florida, Bush, 2000. 'nuff said!
But with 11,000 monitors overseeing 40,000 polling stations, election observers said they are hopeful any attempts at systematic wrongdoing will be spotted.
Suu Kyi and the NLD won the last election they contested, in 1990, but the military refused to honor the results and kept Suu Kyi under house arrest over most of the following two decades.
I can pinpoint when the policy changed. What outrageous sh**, huh?
Analyst Richard Horsey believes Sunday’s result will stand even if the ruling party loses because the military has changed the constitution to protect much of the power it holds.
Winning the elections is only the first step for the NLD to take power. The new Parliament will choose the president, and because the military controls a quarter of the 664 seats, it has a significant head start. Myanmar’s complicated electoral process requires that Parliament put forward three presidential candidates for a February vote.
What's with the qualifiers just before going to the polls (i.e. ending the article after all the swell talk and campaign rhetoric that opened the speech, 'er, report)?
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"Myanmar’s Suu Kyi talks of power; Leader awaits Sunday election with confidence" by Robin McDowell Associated Press November 06, 2015
YANGON, Myanmar — Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi said Thursday that she will be the true power above the country’s president if her party wins historic elections this Sunday, circumventing a constitutional clause that bars her from the top job.
Yup, sure looks like "democracy" to me!!
Truth be told, we have the same problem over here. Our presidents are puppets working for money.
Although the comments run contrary to democratic norms, which Suu Kyi has always stood for, they represent the reality in Myanmar’s present ruling structure.
Related:
"It’s about returning democracy to a nation held hostage to more than a half-century of military rule. It’s about hope for a better life for millions of desperately poor people. It’s about being fully embraced by the international community. But most of all...."
It's CRAP!
The current president takes instructions from the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party and if a military person were to become president, he would be beholden to the army commander.
Pretty much how it is here.
The Sunday elections are billed as Myanmar’s best chance ever for a free and credible vote, with analysts noting the nation experienced widespread suppression of dissent and violence even before the 1962 coup that plunged the country into military rule for the next half-century.
I wonder when we will get one in AmeriKa.
However, the constitution, drafted under military control, guarantees that the armed forces maintain control over 25 percent of the seats in Parliament and the key security portfolios.
Lobbyist cash guarantees it here.
In a clause widely seen as custom-tailored for Suu Kyi, it also bars her from the presidency because her late husband was British and her two sons hold foreign passports.
The 70-year-old opposition leader said Thursday that the run-up to the vote had been seriously flawed and that she hoped the international community would not be too quick after ballots were counted to declare it free and fair, noting the United States and others have at times been overly enthusiastic about political and economic reforms.
OMG, the excuses have started before anyone has cast a ballot.
‘‘I ask them,’’ she said, beyond the veneer, ‘‘what has changed?’’
The Union Election Commission, which oversees the voting, is headed by a vocal supporter of President Thein Sein’s ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party.
Suu Kyi said the commission had ignored repeated complaints about irregularities in advance voting, the illegal use of religion by her political opponents, and the disenfranchisement of migrant workers.
She did not mention the country’s 1.3 million Rohingya Muslims, who have been denied the right to vote for the first time since independence.
She never does, and the pre$$ almost did not.
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Any surprise I'm having a meltdown when it comes to what is in the Boston Globe on a daily basis?
Thankfully, I was in Myanmar:
"A Buddhist novice lights candles during the Thadinkyut festival celebration at Mahamuni pagoda in Mandalay, Myanmar, 27 October 2015. The Thadinkyut festival, also called Lighting Festival, is held to mark the full moon day of the Burmese Lunar month of Thadingyut, which marks the end of the Buddhist lent, and is the celebration to welcome the Buddha's descent from heaven."
Related: IS LIFE AN ILLUSION?
More about Taoism, but.... what I'm reading and seeing in the paper sure seems to be.
