Ghost election

As Burma's first election in twenty years approached, the streets of Rangoon and other cities were awash with images of a golden lion. This was the insignia of the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), an entity spawned out of a military proxy 'civilian association' called the Union Solidarity Development Association (USDA). Following its 21 October introduction, the streets also began to be lined with the country's new red, green and gold flag; the old red flags, which the junta had decried for their association with Burma's previous socialist government, were duly burned. By the time voting day rolled around, the new flag was seen on every polling booth, even as many of the booths themselves lay empty for much of the appointed day. Instead, squadrons of policemen were seen hiding behind rusting barbed-wire barriers bearing equally aged guns.

In the office of the NDF – really just a small suburban flat – there is a small picture of a graffiti by the guerrilla artist Banksy. It depicts a forlorn chimp wearing a sandwich board saying, Laugh now, but someday we will be in power. In the hours after the polls closed, that sentiment was oddly palpable; indeed, hope was in the air. NDF Chairman Than Nyein told this writer confidently that turnout had been high – 60 percent by three in the afternoon, dubbing the NLD's boycott of the polls a 'useless effort'. For the NDF, a high turnout was assumed positive due to its linkages to the NLD; there is a tacit understanding that, as took place during the 1990 election, people would again vote to be rid of the military. 'There is a lot of hatred for the USDP,' said U Khin Maung Swe, the NDP leader. 'But we trust our people – they know who is who in the political arena.'In the event, the USDP was duly awarded some 80 percent of the vote. Of course, everyone knew that the elections would be rigged to a certain extent. As one leader of the opposition National Democratic Force (NDF), U Khin Maung Swe, said prior to the elections, 'From the very beginning we felt that the election laws were not fair.' Aside from the fact that junta officials had barred all foreign observers and journalists from monitoring the proceedings, the 2008 Constitution, ratified in the immediate aftermath of the devastation of Cyclone Nargis, guaranteed that 25 percent of parliamentary seats would be reserved for military appointees. As a result, a debate raged for months among most voters and parties as to whether to take part in the polls in the first place. This caused a split in the largest civilian political grouping, the National League for Democracy (NLD), the party of Aung San Suu Kyi that won the 1990 elections hands down but was kept from forming the government. The NDF was one of the new splinter groups that decided to go ahead with putting candidates up for election.