YANGON
It was a day of pre-dawn rising, of patient multitudes waiting in sun and rain, of shops shuttered and closed which are usually bustling. It was a day of courage, and it was a day of pride.
Election day, Sunday, November 8, was a day for Myanmar people to be watched, by local and international media, by electoral observers, and by party representatives who watched them with mingled fear and hope.
It was a day for going to school, to premises newly decked out as polling stations and staffed by newly uniformed electoral officials, teachers transformed for the day to attendants of democracy.
Ma Han Thi Oo, 41, of Yangon’s Sanchaung township, was one of untold thousands who lined up in front of the polling station for two-and-half hours to cast her vote. Throughout the country, polling stations opened from 6am till 4pm, though in many places the casting of ballots went on long past nightfall as those who had arrived by 4pm slowly wound their way through the unfamiliar process. For many, it was the first time they had voted since 1990. For many, it was the first time they had voted at all.
“I heard all the horror stories. I was really worried that my vote might be invalid,” she said, adding that she had passed on all her voter education knowledge to her six family members to make sure they all knew how to vote.
“We need to push together to move forward,” she said.
U Than Win, of Bahan township, said his initial fears of making a mistake melted away once he had placed his stamp on the ballot paper.
“I voted to make sure the next generation doesn’t suffer another 50 years of underdevelopment,” he said proudly, adding that he had changed his Facebook profile to show his ink-stained little finger, evidence of having voted. Many others had the same idea.
Yangon voters spoke of their sense of safety and independence in the polling station.
Ko Paing Phyo Win, 23, told The Myanmar Times he had seen election officials helping disabled voters cast their ballots. Although, he added, the officials were not always so helpful in the case of voters unfamiliar with the stamp method of marking the paper.
“I cast my vote with great care,” he said.
U Aung Zaw, chief editor of The Irrawaddy, said he had seen no problems, but a lot of positive developments as the people voted.
“They have no fear. They understand what is involved,” he said.
Political analyst Bertil Lintner, who covered the 1990 election, said the real surprise would come after the election, after the foreign reporters left. “What’s interesting is not what happens today, but what will happen in January,” he said.
Min Ko Naing, a leader of 88 Generation and Open Society, said the election was not a goal in itself, but could bring peaceful change.
“It’s an expression of people power. It will open the way to discussions with the ethnic peoples, and will confer legitimacy,” he said, as thousands of people gathered, in a celebratory mood, in front of NLD headquarters awaiting the results of the election. They seemed to know, as many distinguished international commentators apparently did not, that the fact that “nothing happened” was the most important fact of all.
