缅甸补选引发国际瞩目

英语自学网

缅甸本周末举行议会两院及地方议会空缺议席补选，反对党领袖昂山素季也将参加，其结果可能影响其对外经济状态。
HINTS：
Burma/Burmese
Aung San Suu Kyi
Joanna Fisher
主持：dramatic150
校对：cryforwhat
翻译+注释：cjsfight
答疑：liuczhiBy-elections when just a handful of government seats are up for grabs often don't make much news even in the countries in which they're being held. But the by-election in Burma this weekend is getting huge international attention. It won't change the balance of power in the country - just 45 of the more than 1,000 seats in the national and regional parliaments are being contested, but it represents a milestone in Burma's political development. And if it is indeed free and fair, means Burma's world-famous democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi could at last take a seat in parliament. It's part of a political transformation that is reshaping the country and its economy as the BBC's Joanna Fisher reports.
One risk analysis group recently said that Burma had the world's worst legal system for doing business with a complete lack of transparency or judicial independence. But that's not deterred interest from abroad. As political reforms have gathered pace, multi-national companies have been getting in position ready to move into a country with abundant and largely unexploited natural resources. If Sunday's by-election is seen as being free and fair, then it's likely that Europe and the United States will lift some of their sanctions on the Burmese authorities. Though the steps will probably be incremental, eventually that could mean western companies moving into sectors like energy, financial services and the telecommunications.当只有一小部分政府职位需要补充时，即使是在选举的国家，递补选举也不会是个新闻。但是本周将在缅甸进行的递补选举引起了国际上的巨大关注。这一选举并不会改变该国的力量均衡——在本次全国性议会和地区议会中的1000多个席位中竞选的只有45个，但是这预示着缅甸政治发展中的一个里程碑。如果这次选举足够公平、自由，意味着缅甸世界闻名的民主激进分子昂山素季最终可在议会中赢得一席。BBC的乔安娜·菲舍尔报道称，这是重塑缅甸的政治和经济变革中的一部分。
近期，一个风险分析组织评估称，缅甸有全世界最差劲的法律制度，对做生意的人来说，它完全没有透明度，也缺乏司法独立。但是国外对此的兴趣并没有被打消，随着政治改革的步伐加快，跨国公司已经做好入位准备，移步进这个拥有丰富且大量未开采自然资源的国度。如果周日的递补选举可比拟自由公平，那么欧洲和美国很可能对缅甸高层取消些制裁。尽管步伐可能会加快，最终西方公司也会步入例如能源、金融服务和电信等行业。