The Asian Network for Free Elections (ANFREL), a Bangkok-based organization that monitors elections in the region, said that its coordinator was deported from Burma on Tuesday.

The move comes at the same time that the Burmese government invited the US, the EU and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) to send observers to monitor the April 1 by-elections.

Sources from ANFREL said that Somsri Hananuntasuk arrived back in Bangkok on Tuesday evening after Burmese immigration officials visited the Rangoon hotel in which she was staying and asked her to pack her belongings and leave the country. 

Somsri entered Burma on Mar. 15 in an attempt to win permission from the Union Election Commission in Naypyidaw to allow her organization to observe the upcoming election.

It is, however, unclear whether she was asked to leave the country for her election-related activities in Rangoon, said the sources, adding that immigration officials told Somsri that she can return to Burma again, but not on a tourist visa.

During her stay in Rangoon, Somsri attended a meeting with some local political party members where she was requested to share her experiences on the holding of free and fair elections. Somsri has been involved in election observation in more than 20 countries.

Burma on Tuesday invited the Asean bloc to send a five-member election delegation along with over two dozen parliamentarians and media representatives.

The invitation was extended on Wednesday to include the US and EU, which are dialogue partners of Asean, according to an Associated Press report quoting the US embassy in Burma.  

“We are encouraged that the authorities have invited international representatives as observers, including from Asean, the EU and the United States,” embassy spokeswoman Adrienne Nutzman told The Associated Press.

The US and EU have singled out the April polls as a measure of whether the West will lift sanctions imposed on Burma.  

The April 1 by-election is being held to fill 48 parliamentary seats vacated by lawmakers who were appointed to the Cabinet and other posts. Burma’s pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, who leads the main opposition National League for Democracy, is contesting a seat.