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Friday, 30 March 2012

Myanmar | Aung San Suu Kyi warns of irregularities in polls

Yangon: With 24 hours to go before the by-elections in Myanmar begin all eyes are on pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi who is contesting for the first time in 20 years and is widely expected to make a comeback.

At a rare press conference in Yangon, Aung San Suu Kyi already warned that this weekend's by-elections, being watch closely by the world's media, may not be fair.

"What has been happening in this country is really beyond what is acceptable for democratic elections. Still, we are determined to go forward because we think this is what our people want," Kyi said.

Kyi's party the NLD hasn't participated in elections held by the military. Unlike in the past when the elections were blatantly rigged, this time Kyi is expected to sweep the 44 seats that NLD is contesting. But that's not all that's changed because of the political reforms in the country.

Despite the newly-acquired freedom, the military remains in control and only a tenth of the seats in parliament are up for election.

For the moment though, her people are simply enjoying the freedom to use Kyi's once banned images - now on t-shirts, caps and flags. They're wearing their hearts on their sleeves for the lady they have loved for decades - but had been banned from openly supporting.

Myanmar's Presidential Advisor Ko Ko Hlaing has dismissed all allegations of irregularities in the polls and hints more reforms could see the army losing its place in Parliament.

"Every election cannot be perfect, this is quite natural, especially for a transitioning democracy and you can compare this election with Afghanistan and even other countries in the region. There's a lot of bloodshed and riots in the campaign seasons, we don't see any occurrence in our country," Hlaing said.

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