Myanmar prepares for polls

2008-05-19 12:43

Yangon - "They treat us like we're not even human," fumed Yangon taxi driver Ko Myo, after Myanmar authorities knocked on his door to remind him to vote this coming Saturday.

More than two weeks after Cyclone Nargis struck, leaving at least 133 000 people dead or missing, he's still struggling to rebuild his life.

Myanmar's main city remains short on electricity and water, while the nearby Irrawaddy delta lies in ruins, with corpses still rotting in fields and desperate survivors forced to beg for food.

Despite the devastation, however, the military regime is going ahead with a second round of voting on a new constitution on Saturday in the regions that were worst hit by the storm.

The junta claims that 92% of voters in the rest of the country endorsed the charter on May 10, a result rejected by Aung San Suu Kyi's opposition party as "completely incorrect".

"I will not vote, even though the local authorities told me to," Ko Myo said. "I'm not interested at all. I'm just so angry at them right now because of the storm."

Echoing a sentiment shared by many people affected by the disaster, Ko Myo says the government has been slow to respond to the crisis.

The junta has limited the scope of relief operations. The UN estimates that 1.5 million people are still homeless, while only 30% of people in need of food aid are actually receiving it.

Residents fear reprisals

In Yangon, food is available, but prices have doubled since the storm. Fuel costs 50% more, and the power outages plunge most of the city into darkness at sunset.

That hasn't stopped authorities from driving around the city at night, using loudspeakers to encourage people to vote, residents say.

"They also said one person can cast ballots for his entire family. Half of my neighbours already cast their ballots in early voting. Most of them said they voted against the constitution," one resident in the outlying Tamwe township told AFP.

But many residents said they feared reprisals from the military if they didn't vote.

Canvassing evacuees

People from the Irrawaddy delta, where entire villages were wiped away by the storm, said that while food and medicine are still just trickling in, authorities have been canvassing evacuees to register them to vote.

"They go around asking people if they are 18 years old, so they can put them on the voter rolls," said one volunteer who has been delivering food aid to victims in the cyclone disaster zone.

"The evacuees will do whatever the authorities want, if they are given food."

- AFP