Burma’s elections: dictatorship in retreat – not yet

This week’s elections in Burma marked a new beginning for the country. 20 years after the legitimate winner Aung San Suu Kyi and her party the National League for Democracy were denied the right to govern, the military junta organised elections. Yet far from free and fair.

Burma’s military democracy

The new legislative season is soon to start in many legislatures around the world. Yet in many countries Parliaments will not be convened because they simply do not exist. Burma (officially Myanmar) is one of these countries where a military junta illegitimately decides what is good and bad on behalf of the 50 million citizens. The Junta is calling elections on 7 November 2010 – the first since 1990. Can we believe that this time it will lead to democracy and expression of free people’s will ?

 January 2012 Update on Reforms in Myanmar – read here.

Victory for Iraqi elections! Nooooot !

Elections in Iraq 7 March are supposed to be a turning point – a fresh start for Iraqi democracy in an improved security environment and withdrawing US military. But is this really the case – how fresh is the start and how withdrawn is the US from Iraq?

Reports say that last Sunday 62% of Iraqis voted. This is in fact slightly above the turnout in US presidential elections last year. Indeed, much lower than the 75% in 2005 among countless terrorists attacks. In fact, percentage here matter little, as there is one important thing to acknowledge: in the past years Iraq has moved from the rule of sectarian militias to a political process less dependent on arms.

There is indeed only one thing to acknowledge, because once we point out that secular non-sectarian leaders are the two most popular in these elections, we inevitably have to move to the next question: US withdrawal. End of January the last US marine left Iraq but there is still significant force in this country. Officials say that last week’s poll is decisive for the planned withdrawal. But how is the US  withdrawal planned? And is it really a withdrawal?

Elections in Ukraine herald further democratic backslide

Ukrainian gas princess Yulia Tymoshenko is running for president

Today’s election in Ukraine promises a turbulent weeks to follow. The close result from the first round and the campaign full of smears and accusations has ignited sharp language and an open war between the two main candidates – Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and former Premier and presidential candidate in 2004 Victor Yanukovytch. Although the latter lost 5 years ago, he is now in the race again.

Last week saw what I think was the peak of dirty tricks between the candidates – amendments in the election law between the two legs of the election. The new texts stipulate that voting stations can function with single party represented in the electoral commission. This seems a far cry from transparency and proponents of democracy have a good reason to worry about.

This Week In Afghanistan 29 Jan

Over the last week Afghanistan saw a series of incidents and terrorist attacks targeting civilians, Afghan police and foreign military. This comes only to highlight that the insurgency in the country still poses serious challenge to international reconstruction efforts. Locals and foreigners alike share security risks on a daily basis, which makes business operations costly and challenging.