Conflict-ravaged Myanmar Goes to the Polls in Widely Criticised 'Sham' Election.
Myanmar is going to the polls in a vote broadly rejected as a farce, with key opposition groups banned, many of their leaders imprisoned and as much as half of the country unlikely to vote because of an continuing civil war.
A Staggered Vote Amid Conflict
The military government is conducting a phased ballot nearly five years after it took control in a coup, which ignited massive protests and spiralled into a civil war.
Observers say the military regime, with backing from Beijing, is seeking to legitimise and entrench its power as it looks for a way out of the devastating deadlock.
"The environment does not allow for the exercise of the rights of freedom of expression, assembly or peaceful protest," the United Nations' top human rights official Volker TĂĽrk said.
More than 200 people have been prosecuted for interfering with or criticising the election under a recently enacted legislation which imposes severe punishments, including the death penalty.
Film director Mike Tee, actor Kyaw Win Htut and comedian Ohn Daing were among the well-known individuals found guilty under the law, which was passed in July. They were each given a seven-year jail term after speaking out against a film endorsing the elections.
Immense Challenges and Coercion
Civilians are "being coerced from all sides," Mr TĂĽrk said in a comment, pointing out that resistance forces have issued their own threats asking people to boycott the polls.
The army has been engaged on multiple battlefields, against both pro-democracy fighters who oppose the coup, as well as ethnic armed organisations which have their own militias. It lost control of vast areas of the country in a series of major setbacks, but clawed back territory this year following relentless airstrikes enabled by support from Beijing and Moscow.
All of this and the fact that significant regions of the country are still under opposition control presents a huge operational hurdle for conducting an election.
A Restricted Poll
Voting is set to take place in three phases over the next month in 274 of the country's 330 townships, with the rest deemed not secure enough. Outcomes are expected by late January.
There is not expected to be any voting in up to fifty percent of the country. Even in the townships that are voting, not all constituencies will go to the polls, making it difficult to forecast a likely turnout.
A handful of parties, including the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party, are running nominees nationwide, while dozens more parties and independent candidates will compete only at the state or regional levels.
Approximately forty groups, including Aung San Suu Kyi's National League of Democracy, which achieved landslide victories in 2015 and 2020, have been dissolved. Suu Kyi and a number of the party's key leaders have been jailed under charges broadly viewed as fabricated, while others are in hiding abroad.
International Condemnation
"Through dividing the vote into phases, the junta can adjust tactics if the results in the first phase do not go their way," commented Htin Kyaw Aye, a representative of the election-monitoring group Spring Sprouts.
Nations in the West, including the UK and the EU legislature, have dismissed the vote as a pretence, while neighbouring group Asean has called for negotiations to precede any election.
The Burmese junta has rejected criticism of the polls, maintaining that it aims to "return [the country] to a multi-party democratic system".
"The election is being held for Myanmar. It is being held for the citizens of this country. It is not being held for the international community," a junta spokesman stated at a news conference last week.
Military leader Min Aung Hlaing warned earlier this week that those who choose not to participate are turning their back on "the path to democracy".
