IMPHAL, March 28 � Two senior Election officials from North East will oversee the upcoming by-election in Myanmar next month as election observers. The two officials are Manipur Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) PC Lawmkunga and his Assam counterpart Maninder Singh.
Sources here said Election Commission of India has suggested the names of CEOs of Manipur and Assam following Myanmar�s invitation to depute election observers from India and other countries in a bid to open up the election process and to avoid severe criticism of the electoral practice.
Myanmar goes to by-election on April 1 to fill up 48 vacant parliamentary seats. Both the CEOs will leave for the bordering country today to oversee the by-election of Myanmar as international election observers. �It is a very prestigious and rare opportunity for me�, said Lawmkunga.
The election is being hotly contested by the National League for Democracy (NLD) party led by democratic icon Aung San Suu Kyi, who has said repeatedly in recent weeks that the election is close to being declared unfair because of government officials who have put obstacles in the path of NLD campaign activities.
The main opposition party NLD was re-registered for the by-election on December 13 last year. NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi who is likely to run for the seat of Kawhmu, was freed from house arrest in 2010. In previous elections only the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party monitors were allowed to observe the election and ballot counts.
