Conflict-ravaged Burma Goes to the Polls in Widely Criticised Political Theater.
The nation is holding an election in a vote widely dismissed as a sham, with key opposition groups dissolved, many of their leaders imprisoned and a significant portion of the country unable to participate because of an ongoing internal conflict.
A Staggered Vote Amid War
The ruling junta is holding a staggered election nearly half a decade after it took control in a coup, which ignited widespread opposition and escalated into a civil war.
Observers say the junta, with backing from Beijing, is attempting to validate and entrench its power as it seeks a way out of the costly stalemate.
"There are no conditions for the exercise of the freedoms of free speech, assembly or peaceful protest," UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said.
More than 200 people have been charged for interfering with or criticising the election under a new law which imposes severe punishments, including the possibility of execution.
Film director Mike Tee, actor Kyaw Win Htut and comedian Ohn Daing were among the prominent figures convicted 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.
Logistical Nightmare and Coercion
Civilians are "facing pressure from all sides," Mr Türk said in a comment, pointing out that resistance forces have issued their own threats urging people to boycott the polls.
The military 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 ceded territory of vast areas of the country in a string of defeats, but clawed back territory this year after relentless airstrikes made possible through support from China and Russia.
All of this and the fact that large parts of the country are still under rebel administration presents a huge operational hurdle for conducting an election.
A Limited Vote
The ballot is set to take place in three phases over the next month in two hundred and seventy-four of the country's 330 townships, with the remainder deemed not secure enough. Results 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 predict a likely turnout.
Six parties, including the junta-supported Union Solidarity and Development Party, are fielding candidates nationwide, while dozens more parties and non-aligned contenders will contest 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 senior figures have been imprisoned under charges widely condemned as fabricated, while the rest are in exile.
Criticism and Rejection
"By splitting the vote into stages, the authorities can change their approach if the outcomes in the initial round do not go their way," noted Htin Kyaw Aye, a spokesman of the election-monitoring group Spring Sprouts.
Nations in the West, including the United Kingdom and the EU legislature, have dismissed the vote as a sham, while neighbouring group Asean has called for political dialogue to come before any election.
The Myanmar regime has dismissed condemnation of the polls, insisting 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 citizens of this country. It is not intended for the outside world," a military representative stated at a briefing last week.
Junta chief Min Aung Hlaing cautioned earlier this week that those who refuse to vote are turning their back on "the path to democracy".