Conflict-ravaged Myanmar Goes to the Polls in Broadly Condemned Political Theater.
Myanmar is going to the polls in a electoral process widely dismissed as a sham, with key opposition groups dissolved, many of their leaders jailed and a significant portion of the country unlikely to vote because of an continuing civil war.
A Phased Ballot Amid War
The ruling junta is conducting a phased ballot nearly half a decade after it took control in a coup, which sparked massive protests and escalated into a devastating conflict.
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 practice of the freedoms of freedom of expression, association or peaceful protest," the United Nations' top human rights official Volker Türk said.
More than 200 people have been charged for interfering with or opposing the polls under a new law which carries severe punishments, including the possibility of execution.
Film director Mike Tee, actor Kyaw Win Htut and comedian Ohn Daing were among the prominent figures found guilty under the law, which was passed in July. They were each handed a seven-year jail term after speaking out against a film endorsing the elections.
Immense Challenges and Coercion
Civilians are "facing pressure from all sides," Mr Türk noted in a comment, adding that armed rebel groups have issued their own threats urging people to shun the polls.
The military has been fighting on multiple battlefields, against both pro-democracy fighters who oppose the coup, as well as ethnic armed organisations which have their own forces. It ceded territory of large parts of the country in a series of major setbacks, but clawed back territory this year following relentless airstrikes made possible through support from Beijing and Moscow.
All of this and the fact that large parts of the country are still under opposition control presents a massive operational hurdle for conducting an election.
A Restricted Poll
Voting is set to take place in three phases over the coming weeks in two hundred and seventy-four of the country's three hundred and thirty townships, with the rest deemed too unstable. Outcomes are expected by late January.
There is unlikely to be any voting in up to fifty percent of the country. Even in the townships that are voting, some districts will hold elections, making it difficult to forecast a possible turnout.
Six parties, including the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party, are running nominees nationwide, while another 51 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 scored landslide victories in 2015 and 2020, have been banned. Suu Kyi and many of the party's key leaders have been jailed under charges widely condemned as fabricated, while the rest are in exile.
International Condemnation
"Through dividing the vote into phases, the authorities can adjust tactics 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.
Western governments, including the United Kingdom and the EU legislature, have rejected the vote as a pretence, while regional bloc Asean has urged political dialogue to precede any election.
The Myanmar regime has rejected condemnation of the polls, insisting that it aims to "restore a democracy with multiple parties".
"The election is being held for our nation. It is being held for the people of this country. It is not being held for the international community," a military representative told 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".