<p>Burmese Internet users on the Bagan Net provider are having their connections cut regularly and when working, they slow to a crawl, according to cybercaf&eacute; owners and surfers.</p> <p>With little more than a week until election day, Burma's Bagan Net internet service from Myanmar Teleport had been very poor for the past three days, they said, adding that they had no warning of impending difficulties.</p>

<p>On 17 April, Election Commissioner Sodsri Sattayatham commented on the vote of Apichart Sukhakkhanon, Chair of the Election Commission, not to dissolve the Democrat Party in contrast to the other four commissioners.</p> <p>She said that Apichart wore two hats, as the Chair of the EC and as the Registrar of Political Parties. &nbsp;As Registrar, he had appointed a 9-member working committee to deal with the Democrat case on his behalf.</p>

<p>The elections for Tambon (Subdistrict) Administrative Organizations (TAOs) across the country have just passed without much press coverage. Achara Rakyutitham writes about how people in a village up on a hill in the North see and deal with local politics.</p>