War-torn Burma Goes to the Polls in Widely Criticised 'Sham' Election.
Myanmar is going to the polls in a electoral process widely dismissed as a sham, with major political parties dissolved, numerous figures jailed and as much as half of the country unable to participate because of an ongoing internal conflict.
A Staggered Vote Amid Conflict
The military government is conducting a phased ballot nearly five years after it seized power in a takeover, which ignited widespread opposition 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 stalemate.
"The environment does not allow for the practice of the rights of free speech, assembly or peaceful protest," the United Nations' top human rights official Volker Türk said.
Over two hundred people have been charged for interfering with or opposing the polls under a new law which imposes severe punishments, including the possibility of execution.
Film director Mike Tee, actor Kyaw Win Htut and entertainer Ohn Daing were among the well-known individuals found guilty under the law, which was enacted in July. They were each handed a prison sentence of seven years after speaking out against a promotional video endorsing the elections.
Immense Challenges and Coercion
Civilians are "facing pressure from all sides," Mr Türk noted in a comment, pointing out that resistance forces have issued their own threats asking people to shun the polls.
The army has been fighting on multiple battlefields, against both armed resistance groups who reject the coup, as well as ethnic armed organisations which have their own forces. It ceded territory of vast areas of the country in a string of defeats, but clawed back territory this year following sustained aerial bombardment enabled by support from China and Russia.
All of this and the fact that significant regions of the country are still under opposition control presents a huge logistical challenge for holding an election.
A Limited Vote
Voting is set to take place in three phases over the next month in 274 of the country's three hundred and thirty townships, with the remainder deemed too unstable. Outcomes are expected around the end of 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 hold elections, making it challenging to predict a possible turnout.
Six 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 widely condemned as politically motivated, while others are in hiding abroad.
Criticism and Rejection
"By splitting the vote into stages, the authorities can change their approach if the outcomes in the first phase do not go their way," commented Htin Kyaw Aye, a spokesman of the election-monitoring group Spring Sprouts.
Nations in the West, including the UK and the EU legislature, have dismissed the vote as a sham, while regional bloc Asean has called for negotiations to precede any election.
The Burmese junta has dismissed criticism of the polls, maintaining that it aims to "return [the country] to a multi-party democratic system".
"The election is being held for our nation. It is being held for the people of Myanmar. It is not being held for the international community," a junta spokesman told a briefing last week.
Junta chief Min Aung Hlaing cautioned earlier this week that those who choose not to participate are rejecting "progress toward democracy".