Campaigning for Burma’s by-elections gets into full swing later this week. Although the country’s pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi—who is contesting a Lower House seat representing her party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), in Rangoon's Kawhmu constituency—has already made several forays into the countryside, the campaign is set to truly get underway on March 1.
But already there are strong signs that this will be far from a free and fair election. The ruling Union Solidarity and Development (USDP) will launch its major electoral broadside later this week—all part of its carefully crafted election strategy. The main USDP leaders—most of whom are not ministers in the current government, but are close to the old junta boss Than Shwe—plan to wage war against the NLD.
Nothing is going to be left to chance, according to a confidential election strategy paper seen by this author. Bribery, vote-buying, intimidation and fraud are all part of the scheme to win the Parliamentary seats up for grabs at the April polls.
The USDP’s detailed strategy for the forthcoming by-elections includes innocuous plans to provide their candidates with the best campaign material—vinyl posters, flyers and attractive billboards to increase the visibility of candidates, free promotional material including T-shirts and hats, and assistance provided for voters to travel to the polling stations.
But more significantly the strategy also involve plans for the character assassination of NLD candidates, bribery and vote-fixing.
The hardline leadership of the USDP will stop at nothing to the win the Parliamentary seats at stake in the by-elections, according to the USDP campaign strategy paper
The USDP leaders understand that their future—though not necessarily that of the government—is intimately tied up with the current Parliamentary by-elections. They cannot afford to lose, and they have set their sights on winning all 48 seats that are being contested—by hook or by crook. A rebuff at these polls will signal the end of the party as it is currently organized, and the hardline leaders are likely to be cast aside.
Aung Thaung, the former Minister for Industry-1, and close confidante of former Snr-Gen Than Shwe, is a renowned hardliner opposed to President Thein Sein’s reform agenda. And it is he who is in charge of the campaign—as he was in 2010, then at Than Shwe’s behest.
These by-elections are a test of strength for the USDP and the NLD, he told party organizers in the strategy paper that was recently circulated to all party offices throughout the country. Do not take these elections for granted, it warned, “remember 1990 when voters blindly flocked to the NLD to spite the old Burma Socialist Programme Party (BSPP).”
This cannot be allowed to be repeated—the country’s continued security, peace and development depends on it, according to Aung Thaung. Campaigning cannot be done only verbally, but must be combined with practical benefits—for the voters. The main issue is the “stomach,” the USDP strategy stresses. This involves building and repairing roads, providing schools and medical centres, and promising jobs. Incentives to vote for the USDP would be provided, according to the document.
So called “election-winning committees” have been formed in all regions, states, divisions, townships, wards and village tracts. Special improvement committees have been formed to carry out development tasks—each with seed money of five million kyat [US $6,250) per township. Increased funds will be provided if necessary, the organizers of the campaign plans promised.
And there is no shortage of coffers, according to Rangoon's Western diplomats who have been monitoring the preparations for the election. Hundreds of former government properties have been sold off in the past few months to raise the necessary financial resources to fight the by-elections.
Already the campaign strategy is being carried out. All along the main road in Aung San Suu Kyi’s constituency there are big colorful billboards proclaiming to voters that the roads are being repaired by the USDP. In many places throughout the country USDP is taking credit for infrastructure projects, medical centres and schools, built by the government.
The NLD says it is concerned with this obvious electoral manipulation. At a recent press conference in Rangoon, the party spokesman Nyan Win complained that the USDP candidates had promised voters upgraded infrastructure and electricity supply—but the NLD questioned the source of their funding to meet these promises.
E-MAIL
PRINT
COMMENTS (21)
