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| Southeast Asia |
| Burma: "We don't need no damn foreign election observers!" |
| 2010-05-13 |
| [Straits Times] MYANMAR has no need for foreign observers to monitor its first elections in two decades, state media reported on Wednesday, despite international concerns that the polls will lack legitimacy. 'International watchdog groups do not need to come,' the chairman of the country's election body told a visiting US envoy, according to the New Light of Myanmar newspaper. 'Arrangements have been made to ensure free and fair elections,' Election Commission chairman Thein Soe was quoting as telling US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Kurt Campbell on Monday. Election candidates will be allowed to appoint a representative and helper to observe polling stations and the ballots are to be counted in front of the voters, Mr Thein Soe said. Critics say the polls are aimed at simply entrenching the ruling generals' power. Mr Campbell met several government ministers and opposition leaders, including detained democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, during his two-day visit to the military-ruled country. He said following his talks that the United States was 'profoundly disappointed' in the junta's preparations for the upcoming elections and wanted 'immediate steps' to address fears that they would lack legitimacy. Ms Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) was forcibly dissolved last week under widely criticised laws governing the elections, which are scheduled for some time later this year. The NLD refused to meet a May 6 deadline to re-register as a party - a move that would have forced it to expel its own leader - and boycotted the vote. |
| Posted by:Fred |