Myanmar elections to proceed as planned despite flooding

YANGON-Myanmar’s electoral authorities on Tuesday said they are considering postponing the country’s historic elections, scheduled for November. 8, because of flooding and landslides that have struck the nation in recent weeks.

But analysts and members of opposition parties immediately questioned the motives behind the proposal at a time when the powerful military’s political rival, the party of the Nobel peace laureate and leader of Myanmar’s democracy movement, Aung San Suu Kyi, is showing strong support.

The head of the election commission confirmed voting might be delayed because of “landslides and flooding”, but gave no further details.

The commission had urged the major political parties to agree to the postponement.

The Union Election Commission said the election would be held on November 8 as scheduled “regardless of the consequences”, Myanmar state-run TV reported Tuesday in an 8 p.m. broadcast. Win Htein said that the floods were insufficient reason to postpone the landmark vote.

Large areas of central and western Myanmar were left under water after heavy monsoon rains earlier this year, with more than 100 people killed and 1.6 million left homeless by the floods. “Even if they wanted to change the election date because of the disaster, it should have been decided earlier”, said Mai Thin Yu Monday of the Chin Human Rights Organization. In 2008, Myanmar’s military rulers rebuffed calls to delay a constitutional referendum held a week after a cyclone killed about 140,000 people.

Eight rebel groups have agreed to sign on, but not the Kachin Independence Army, which has seen ongoing clashes with the military since the breakdown of a 17-year ceasefire in 2011.

But tensions have been running high ahead of the poll, largely stoked by the Massachusetts Ba Tha, an organisation led by the hardline nationalist monks that has sharply criticised the NLD. The NLD was the only party to oppose the move, while the remaining three, the Arakan National Party, National Unity Party and National Democratic Force did not come down on either side. I think the government, the ruling party and the election commission, are coordinating and collaborating to implement their strategy and tactics.