Tokyo embassy joins others in receiving absentee votes

Wednesday, 20 October 2010 02:33 Salai Han Thar San

New Delhi (Mizzima) – The Burmese embassy in Tokyo took advanced votes from citizens in Japan for the November 7 general election yesterday, amid street protests urging a poll boycott.

The mission joined Burma’s embassies to Russia, Philippines, Britain and the United States in the past week that also collected absentee votes.

“About 40 people arrived at the embassy between eight and 10 in the morning while I was standing out front … Most of them were studying here, those married to Japanese citizens and senior citizens,” a Burmese citizen told Mizzima.

The embassy was opened from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. but they allowed those who had brought an invitation letter from the mission to enter and cast their votes in advance, he said.

It announced that it would suspend consular services for Burmese citizens, visa applications and collection yesterday and that these services would resume today.

The Japan-based 2010 Election Boycott Committee held protests against the election outside the embassy, distributing leaflets that contained the message: “Take your free decision only after reading this leaflet” to the Burmese who came to vote.

The committee is an alliance of in total 28 activist and pro-democracy groups in Japan that include the National League for Democracy (Liberated Area – Japan Branch), the League of Democracy for Burma, the Burma Democratic Action and the All Burma Federation of Student Unions (Foreign Affairs Committee).

It distributed 300 copies of leaflets urging citizens to boycott the election if possible, and to reconsider casting their votes.

“We urged the voters not to support the junta directly or indirectly by voting in this election, which will enslave our unborn relatives and children under the military dictatorship,” committee chairman Mai Kyaw Oo told Mizzima.

There are about 50,000 Burmese citizens living in Japan for various reasons.

Similarly, absentee votes were collected in Russia from servicemen studying as guests of one of Burma’s few but powerful allies.

“I have cast my advanced votes on three ballot papers: one is for a party representing our race, and the other two were for the USDP party. Name and address has to be filled in on a counterfoil and ticks for the parties of our choice on the original. Our student leader explained how to vote before leaving for Moscow,” a military officer on study leave in Russia said.

Sources told Mizzima that about 2,000 Burmese military officers were studying in the country.

Burmese embassies in the Philippines, Britain and the US collected advanced votes from Burmese citizens over the weekend.
About 10,000 eligible voters reside in Britain but the Burmese embassy in London allowed only a few to cast their votes in advance, the Burma Liberation Front (BLF), based in Britain, said.

“There are about 10 students who are studying here but they were not allowed to enter the embassy … The embassy told them their names were not included in the electoral roll … so they had to return [home] without voting,” BLF general secretary Ma Thandar said.

In its website report about the voting day on Saturday, the BLF said the Burmese embassy had secretly sent invitations to only a handful of Burmese citizens living in Britain “who are very friendly with the embassy”.

“The Burmese embassy did not make any efforts to notify and alert the expatriate Burmese in London about its plans to secretly hold early overseas voting on October 16 for sham Burmese elections on November 7,” it said.

It added that to make sure only a handful of pro-regime people were able to vote, and to turn away any other potential voters, the embassy had hired “menacing looking” private security guards to stop “uninvited voters” coming to cast their votes, which was actually why the 10 were turned away.

The BLF said it had received information about the “unlawful and unfair” voting arrangements from insiders in the Burmese diplomatic community, “so we sent our own members who hold Burmese passports to demand at the Burmese embassy to allow them to exercise their legitimate citizens’ rights to cast their votes for parties of their choice”.

“But … our members were stopped at the embassy doorstep and searched by securities [security guards] and had their passports checked, and their personal details were taken,” the report said.

The website report said that the BLF members proceeded to hold a demonstration in front of the embassy from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. “to protest at [its] … dishonest, unfair, elitist early overseas voting, which was open only to a small number of hand-picked, pro-regime voters”, it said.