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Saturday 31 March 2012

Aung San Suu Kyi poised to win as Myanmar votes today

Yangon: Myanmar votes on Sunday in its third election in half a century, a crucial test of its nascent reform credentials that could propel opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi into Parliament and convince the West to end sanctions.

The United States and European Union have hinted economic sanctions, imposed years ago in response to human rights abuses, could be lifted if the election is free and fair, which could unleash a wave of investment in the impoverished but resource-rich country bordering India and China.

Suu Kyi is awaiting a new dawn for her country. Sunday's by-elections are Myanmar's third parliamentary elections in 50 years, the first that the Nobel laureate is contesting and every indication is that her party the National League for Democracy (NLD) would win.

The poll by Mizzima News predicts that about 30-35 of the 45 seats up for elections will go to Suu Kyi's party. It's an indicator that a shift in power is coming with full general elections due in 2015.

Despite the Euphoria, many including Aung San Suu Kyi have warned that poll irregularities could still give Myanmar's political reforms a setback.

To counter the fears, the Election Commission has invited in international observers and hundreds of journalists while lifting the restrictions on their movements.

Maung Maung Than, election official, said, "We're preparing the election on April 1 to be free and fair. We'll make it free and fair, I believe this."

In a country that has been ruled by a repressive regime for half a century, believing in this election is still a leap of faith. The only thing Aung San Suu Kyi's supporters believe in they say, is her.

A civilian government took office a year ago after almost five decades of military rule and has surprised the world with the speed at which it has implemented political and economic reforms, including freeing hundreds of political prisoners.

To be regarded as credible, the vote needs the blessing of 66-year-old Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate who was herself freed from house arrest in November 2010, just after the general election that led to the civilian government the following March.

That election was widely seen as rigged to favour the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), the biggest in parliament, and Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) boycotted the vote.

Suu Kyi appears to have taken a gamble after the reforms pushed through by President Thein Sein, who was himself a general in the former junta. She has called him "honest" and "sincere" and accepted his appeal for the NLD to take part.

Her party is competing for 44 of the 45 by-election seats, but has complained of irregularities that could undermine the vote.

"What has been happening in this country is really beyond what is acceptable for a democratic election. Still, we are determined to go forward because we think that is what our people want," a frail but defiant Suu Kyi told reporters outside her lakeside house in Yangon on Friday.

She has accused rivals of vandalizing election posters, padding electoral registers and "many, many cases of intimidation", including two attempts to injure candidates with catapulted projectiles.

Suu Kyi is running in the constituency of Kawhmu, south of Yangon. She planned to tour polling stations there early on Sunday.

It was not clear when the results would be announced.

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