Myanmar holds historic first free election

This Sunday, Myanmar held an historic first open election after five decades of military rule and dozens of manipulated elections. In a country like Myanmar, however, a free election does not necessarily mean prosperity or peace. Military leadership and oppression has left Myanmar wary of anything with the attachment "free" or "democratic;" hurdles set up by current president Thein Sein and his military party already greatly limit the chances of opposing parties. Some worry that the military will not even allow the election to be fulfilled, as in 1990 when an opposing party won a free election and the country's generals shut down the entire thing, keeping power in the hands of the current regime. This time, however, 32 million Buddhist citizens are registered to vote. The remaining minority Muslim population, some few hundred-thousands, are not allowed to cast ballots (Myanmar's current party is backed by a strange sect of extremist Buddhist monks and nuns who wish to outlaw Islam).

The primary candidate in the election is Aung San Suu Kyi, the daughter of Aung San, who is the face of Myanmar's independence movement; Aung San was assassinated in the midst of Myanmar's separation from British rule. Aung San Suu Kyi is a current member of Myanmar's Parliament and is the supposed front-runner in the campaign. It was her win in the 1990 election which caused the military to seize control once more. Even more difficult is the fact that under the state's constitution, the military holds 25% of the seats in Parliament, meaning any opposing party wishing to gain ground needs to win two-thirds of the vote to have a simple majority rule in Parliament. Furthermore, the military has written a clause in the Constitution that bars anyone married to a foreign person or who has had foreign children from acting as president. Aung San Suu Kyi has done both, so it is unclear how a win for her party will play out.

Regardless of the unfavorable circumstances, Myanmar's citizens (who are legally able to vote) are excited to be able to cast their ballot in what looks like the first official election in the state's history. Tallying will take quite a while, as Myanmar is a mostly-rural nation that has its highest concentration in the countryside. There are more than 10,000 election monitors from other countries working to assure that the election is free of corruption. It will be very interesting to see how Myanmar handles such a huge change.

Samantha Johnson