Burma was making final preparations on Saturday for polls seen as a test of the military-dominated regime’s reforms, in which Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi is standing for the first time.
Many polling stations in the 45 constituencies spread across the country were already set up for the Sunday vote, which the Nobel laureate is contesting despite criticising it as not “genuinely free and fair”. Ms Suu Kyi arrived in her rural constituency of Kawhmu, about two hours drive from Ran-goon, on Saturday evening in a convoy of six cars covered with stickers for her National League for Democracy (NLD) party. Small groups of people gathered to cheer her arrival, wearing NLD T-shirts and waving party banners and pictures of Ms Suu Kyi.
The participation of “The Lady” and the NLD has fuelled an explosion in the number of T-shirt vendors in the main commercial city of Rangoon, with an every-increasing variety of styles, all of which would have been taboo just a year ago.
“We must win,” states the latest design, a red shirt with Ms Suu Kyi’s face printed in black. A carnival atmosphere pervaded in Mingalar Taung Nyunt township, one of six constituencies up for grabs in Rangoon, on the last day of campaigning. Lar-ge flatbed trucks cram-med with people, from young children to the elderly, travelled through the streets blaring music, including the popular campaign song about Ms Suu Kyi Our mom is back. There was obvious glee at being able to display political allegiance freely.
Many supporters, wearing red NLD bandannas and T-shirts, had plastered their faces with stickers of the party logo — a red background with a yellow fighting peacock and a white star. “We have done a lot of preparation for April 1. We have polling station representatives and people to provide information, because we want to know what’s going on. The result will match people’s desires.
The NLD must win,” local NLD candidate Phyu Phyu Thin said. NLD supporters erected a giant LED screen outside the party headquarters in Rangoon to broadcast the results as they come in. In the city’s Mayangone constituency, officials set out tables and labelled ballot boxes at a polling station in a high school.