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Will elections give peace a chance in Kachin?
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An internally displaced man and his children stand on a field at a temporary shelter in Danai, Kachin state, on May 12, 2018. Thousands of people have fled renewed fighting between Myanmar's army and ethnic insurgents in the country's remote north, a United Nations official said, as a long-simmering conflict intensifies. (AFP/Ye Aung Thu)
I
t was morning and chilly when we arrived at a village in Kachin state, Myanmar. Steam came out of our mouths when we talked. I could see a forest-covered hill as I sat in the middle of a field near a school building.
An empty flagpole stood straight in front of me. Three polling stations located in this school compound were already open. I got the sense the school opened just as our car arrived exactly in front of its gate. Probably the teachers didn’t believe me when I told them two days earlier that we would come back on voting day.
It was too quiet there. One of the teachers said most of the villagers had left and were living in camps for internally displaced people (IDP) across Kachin and northern Shanmar. Only some elders, women and children stayed.
Kachin and eight other states or regions conducted by-elections on Nov. 3 to fill 13 empty seats in the parliament. In the case of Myanmar, those seats were made vacant when incumbents died or were appointed to other positions in the government. Ireland, the United States, the United Kingdom, the Philippines and France are several countries that apply the same mechanism, while in Indonesia the power to fill empty legislative seats belongs to political parties.
