🔗 Share this article Conflict-ravaged Burma Goes to the Polls in Broadly Condemned Political Theater. The country's junta is conducting a staggered election over the coming weeks. The nation is holding an election in a electoral process widely dismissed as a farce, with major political parties banned, numerous figures jailed and as much as half of the country unlikely to vote because of an ongoing internal conflict. A Staggered Vote Amid Conflict The military government is holding a staggered election nearly half a decade after it took control in a coup, which sparked widespread opposition and spiralled into a devastating conflict. Analysts note the junta, with backing from Beijing, is attempting to validate and entrench its power as it looks for a way out of the devastating stalemate. "There are no conditions for the exercise of the rights of freedom of expression, association or peaceful assembly," UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said. More than 200 people have been charged for disrupting or criticising the election under a new law which imposes severe punishments, including the death penalty. Film director Mike Tee, performer Kyaw Win Htut and comedian Ohn Daing were among the well-known individuals convicted under the law, which was passed in July. They were each handed a seven-year jail term after criticising a film endorsing the elections. Logistical Nightmare and Pressure Civilians are "being coerced from all sides," Mr Türk noted in a comment, pointing out that resistance forces have made warnings urging people to boycott the polls. The military has been fighting on multiple battlefields, against both pro-democracy fighters who reject the coup, as well as ethnic armies which have their own militias. It ceded territory of vast areas of the country in a string of defeats, but regained territory this year after relentless airstrikes enabled by support from China and Russia. All of this and the fact that significant regions of the country are still under rebel administration presents a massive operational hurdle for holding an election. A Restricted Poll Voting is set to take place in three rounds over the coming weeks in two hundred and seventy-four of the country's 330 townships, with the rest deemed too unstable. Results are expected around the end of January. There is unlikely to be any voting in as much as one half of the country. Even in the townships that are voting, some districts will hold elections, making it challenging to predict a likely turnout. A handful of parties, including the junta-supported Union Solidarity and Development Party, are running nominees nationwide, while another 51 parties and independent candidates will contest only at the local levels. Some 40 parties, including Aung San Suu Kyi's National League of Democracy, which scored landslide victories in 2015 and 2020, have been dissolved. Suu Kyi and a number of the party's senior figures have been jailed under charges widely condemned as fabricated, while others are in exile. Criticism and Rejection "By splitting the vote into stages, the junta can adjust tactics if the outcomes in the first phase do not go their way," noted Htin Kyaw Aye, a representative of the election-monitoring group Spring Sprouts. Nations in the West, including the UK and the European Parliament, have dismissed the vote as a sham, while neighbouring group Asean has urged negotiations to precede any election. The Burmese junta has rejected condemnation of the polls, maintaining that it aims to "return [the country] to a democracy with multiple parties". "The election is being held for Myanmar. It is being held for the people of Myanmar. It is not intended for the outside world," a junta spokesman stated at a briefing last week. Junta chief Min Aung Hlaing warned earlier this week that those who choose not to participate are rejecting "the path to democracy".
The country's junta is conducting a staggered election over the coming weeks. The nation is holding an election in a electoral process widely dismissed as a farce, with major political parties banned, numerous figures jailed and as much as half of the country unlikely to vote because of an ongoing internal conflict. A Staggered Vote Amid Conflict The military government is holding a staggered election nearly half a decade after it took control in a coup, which sparked widespread opposition and spiralled into a devastating conflict. Analysts note the junta, with backing from Beijing, is attempting to validate and entrench its power as it looks for a way out of the devastating stalemate. "There are no conditions for the exercise of the rights of freedom of expression, association or peaceful assembly," UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said. More than 200 people have been charged for disrupting or criticising the election under a new law which imposes severe punishments, including the death penalty. Film director Mike Tee, performer Kyaw Win Htut and comedian Ohn Daing were among the well-known individuals convicted under the law, which was passed in July. They were each handed a seven-year jail term after criticising a film endorsing the elections. Logistical Nightmare and Pressure Civilians are "being coerced from all sides," Mr Türk noted in a comment, pointing out that resistance forces have made warnings urging people to boycott the polls. The military has been fighting on multiple battlefields, against both pro-democracy fighters who reject the coup, as well as ethnic armies which have their own militias. It ceded territory of vast areas of the country in a string of defeats, but regained territory this year after relentless airstrikes enabled by support from China and Russia. All of this and the fact that significant regions of the country are still under rebel administration presents a massive operational hurdle for holding an election. A Restricted Poll Voting is set to take place in three rounds over the coming weeks in two hundred and seventy-four of the country's 330 townships, with the rest deemed too unstable. Results are expected around the end of January. There is unlikely to be any voting in as much as one half of the country. Even in the townships that are voting, some districts will hold elections, making it challenging to predict a likely turnout. A handful of parties, including the junta-supported Union Solidarity and Development Party, are running nominees nationwide, while another 51 parties and independent candidates will contest only at the local levels. Some 40 parties, including Aung San Suu Kyi's National League of Democracy, which scored landslide victories in 2015 and 2020, have been dissolved. Suu Kyi and a number of the party's senior figures have been jailed under charges widely condemned as fabricated, while others are in exile. Criticism and Rejection "By splitting the vote into stages, the junta can adjust tactics if the outcomes in the first phase do not go their way," noted Htin Kyaw Aye, a representative of the election-monitoring group Spring Sprouts. Nations in the West, including the UK and the European Parliament, have dismissed the vote as a sham, while neighbouring group Asean has urged negotiations to precede any election. The Burmese junta has rejected condemnation of the polls, maintaining that it aims to "return [the country] to a democracy with multiple parties". "The election is being held for Myanmar. It is being held for the people of Myanmar. It is not intended for the outside world," a junta spokesman stated at a briefing last week. Junta chief Min Aung Hlaing warned earlier this week that those who choose not to participate are rejecting "the path to democracy".