Yangon (dpa) – President Thein Sein urged the people of Myanmar to help keep the April 1 by-elections “free, fair and clean” as the world watches the outcome, media reports said Sunday. “This coming by-election is a first-ever election which will be held by the new government and the world will be watching us,” Thein Sein said Saturday while attending the opening of a bridge in Pathein in the Irrawaddy Delta, Skynet TV reported. Thein Sein, a former army general, became president a year ago after his pro-military Union Solidarity and Development Party won the November 2010 general elections, the first to be held in Myanmar in 20 years. Since his government came to power, replacing a military junta, he has surprised the international community by taking a reformist path, mainly by opening a political dialogue with democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi and paving the way for her National League for Cemocracy party to contest the by-elections. It is widely anticipated that Suu Kyi would win a seat and become the opposition leader in parliament after the polls. “I would like to urge our people to help us have a free, fair and clean election,” Thein Sein said. “All political parties must accept the people's decision, whether win or lose,” he said. Western democracies have set the outcome of the by-elections as an important benchmark for Myanmar's reform process. If they are held freely and fairly, the West would be likely to further normalize diplomatic ties with the country, once an international pariah for its human rights abuses, and consider dropping economic sanctions that have been in place for the past two decades. Last week, Thein Sein invited representatives from the European Union, United States and the Association of South-East Asian Nations to send observers to monitor the by-elections, an unprecedented move for the country that had been under military rule since 1962. The by-elections are to fill 48 vacant seats in parliament. BM ShortURL: http://goo.gl/hmc8j Tags: Democracy, Elections, Myanmar Section: Latest News, Southeast Asia
