Low turnout mars Myanmar's first vote in 20 years
No, the article itself explains what marred the election:
Twenty-five percent of seats in all chambers are reserved for serving generals. That means army-backed parties needs to win just 26 percent of seats for the military and its proxies to secure a majority in the legislature.
But the army appears to be taking no chances. At least six parties lodged complaints with the election commission, claiming state workers were forced to vote for the USDP in advance balloting.
In Yangon, many voters turned up to vote only to find their names not on electoral rolls, said Zaw Aye Maung, a candidate for the Rakhine Nationalities Development Party, the second-largest of 22 ethnic-based parties.
Hundreds of Rohingyas, a stateless Muslim minority in Myanmar, were given identification cards in Yangon and the right to vote in exchange for backing the USDP, he added.
Some voters who asked officials for assistance at ballot booths were told to tick the box of the USDP, witnesses said.
The National Democratic Force (NDF), the largest pro-democracy party, accused the USDP of "widespread fraud."
Thirty-seven parties are contesting places in a bicameral national parliament and 14 regional assemblies. Except for the USDP and NUP, none has enough candidates to win any real stake due to restrictions such as high fees for each candidate.
The idea that pretend elections will pave the way for real democracy is a farce. Only if the people lose their fear of the government and attempt to seize real democracy, this is just a way for the regime to allow apologists to claim there is some democracy.
But the people might rise up for democracy one day. As I've written, democracy must be important--even an "Asian value" if I may be so bold--for the regime to pretend to have democracy.
UPDATE: Say it ain't so!
Myanmar's biggest military-backed party won the country's first election in 20 years by a landslide on Tuesday after a carefully choreographed vote denounced by pro-democracy parties as rigged to preserve authoritarian rule.
It is the form of democracy without any substance to make the concept meaningful. The regime put on a nice show, but that's about it. Still, it's at least nice to see that the idea of democracy is so strong that rulers will make the effort to pretend they have democracy.
