Southeast Asian monitors were invited to the 2012 by-elections but Western observers were banned. PHOTO/ HTOO TAY ZAR/WIKICOMMONS
The pressure is on for the polls scheduled for the end of the year to go ahead: Myanmar’s government has invited the international community to the party.
Western observers will be asked to monitor the general election in November, a senior government official has said.
It’s the first time they’ve been invited to observe polls in the country for more than half a century, since the military coup of 1962.
Reuters quoted Soe Thein, from the president’s office, as saying that members of the US-based Carter Center and the European Union would be asked to “ensure the election takes place free and fair”.
Foreigners were banned from observing the 2010 elections, which ushered in the semi-civilian government, while only Southeast Asian monitors were permitted in 2012 by-elections.
But will the election even take place?
In an interview with exile media publication Democratic Voice of Burma last week, longtime Myanmar watcher Bertil Lintner put the likelihood of the general election happening this year at just 25 per cent.
