Tiny fraction of Myanmar migrants in Thailand cast advance vote

Dozens of Myanmar nationals queued to cast advance votes in Bangkok on Saturday for November elections in the former junta-ruled nation, but only a tiny fraction of the migrants working in Thailand were registered to vote.

Advance voting for the millions-strong diaspora kicked-off Thursday in Singapore and South Korea as Myanmar prepares for polls heralded as the freest in generations.

But only around 30,000 overseas nationals in 37 countries had registered to vote early for the November 8 polls, according to Myanmar's Union Election Commission (UEC).

For decades Myanmar nationals have escaped poverty and repression at home by fleeing to neighbouring countries in search of work.

At midday Saturday just a few dozen Myanmar nationals lined up to vote outside the country's embassy in Bangkok, said an AFP journalist at the scene.

Yet Thailand is home to an estimated two million Myanmar workers who prop up vast and lucrative sectors spanning seafood to construction.

Several voters arrived to find their names were not on the voter lists posted outside after believing they had successfully registered.

Romar Thapa, a 27-year-old domestic helper who has lived in Bangkok for seven years, was one of those who left "disappointed".

"I wanted to vote for the NLD," said the Myanmar national about Aung San Suu Kyi's opposition National League for Democracy, adding she was unsure why her registration had failed.

Earlier this week the UEC said only 561 nationals were registered to vote in Thailand and in a statement issued Friday requested overseas voters to "be patient with inconveniences", reported the Global New Light of Myanmar.

"It is a huge task for Myanmar embassies to arrange convenient advance voting abroad due to weak experience in holding elections and limited staff at the embassies," it admitted according to the state-run newspaper.

Turnout has been much stronger in Singapore with photographs of Myanmar nationals sleeping overnight on a pavement outside the embassy in preparation to vote being widely shared on Facebook.

Earlier a Myanmar embassy volunteer, who asked not to be named, said more than 20,000 voters had pre-registered in the city-state which hosts an estimated 100,000 Myanmar citizens from maids to students and professionals.

The NLD is tipped to sweep the upcoming polls as it contests its first nationwide election in 25 years.

The party had won the 1990 vote, whose results were ignored by the then junta, and boycotted flawed polls in 2010 which returned the military-backed party to power.
Source: AFP