Yangon: Myanmar`s Election Commission
announced voter turnout today, a month after widely criticised
elections, saying 77 per cent of the country`s 29 million
eligible voters cast ballots.
Myanmar`s main military-backed political party
overwhelmingly won the country`s first election in two
decades, though official results have yet to be released.
Official media reported over the weekend that the
Union Solidarity and Development Party won 882 of 1,154
parliamentary seats in November 7 polls.
Opponents as well as outside critics of the junta,
such as the US government, have dismissed the vote as neither
free nor fair, and say it was manipulated to ensure the
military`s allies would win.
Today`s release of voter turnout followed a few
blunders by the Election Commission, which previously reported
it exceeded 100 per cent in some constituencies. The
commission also declared two pro-junta candidates winners in
constituencies in Kachin State where elections had been
cancelled.
The election results assure the military, which has
ruled Myanmar since 1962, will continue to wield decisive
power.
Previously held elections in 1990 were overwhelmingly
won by the National League for Democracy, led by Aung San Suu
Kyi, but the military did not recognise the results.
Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, was recently
released from her latest period of house arrest. She has been
in detention for more than 15 of the last 21 years.
PTI
