🔗 Share this article Conflict-ravaged Burma Goes to the Polls in Broadly Condemned 'Sham' Election. The country's military is holding a staggered election over the next month. Myanmar is going to the polls in a vote broadly rejected as a farce, with key opposition groups dissolved, many of their leaders jailed and a significant portion of the country unlikely to vote because of an continuing internal conflict. A Staggered Vote Amid Conflict The ruling junta is conducting a staggered election nearly five years after it seized power in a takeover, which sparked widespread opposition and escalated into a devastating conflict. Analysts note the junta, with China's support, is attempting to validate and entrench its power as it looks for a way out of the costly stalemate. "There are no conditions for the exercise of the freedoms of free speech, association or peaceful protest," UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said. More than 200 people have been charged for disrupting or opposing the polls under a recently enacted legislation which carries harsh penalties, including the possibility of execution. Director Mike Tee, performer 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 criticising a promotional video promoting the elections. Immense Challenges and Coercion Civilians are "being coerced from all sides," Mr Türk noted in a statement, adding that armed rebel groups have made warnings asking people to shun 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 lost control of large parts of the country in a string of defeats, but regained territory this year after 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 massive operational hurdle for conducting an election. A Limited Vote 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 remainder deemed too unstable. Results 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 go to the polls, making it difficult to predict a likely turnout. A handful of parties, including the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party, are fielding candidates nationwide, while another 51 parties and independent candidates will compete only at the state or regional levels. Some 40 parties, including Aung San Suu Kyi's National League of Democracy, which achieved decisive wins in 2015 and 2020, have been dissolved. Suu Kyi and many of the party's senior figures have been imprisoned under charges widely condemned as fabricated, while others are in exile. International Condemnation "By splitting the vote into stages, the authorities can adjust tactics if the results in the first phase do not go their way," commented Htin Kyaw Aye, a representative of the watchdog group Spring Sprouts. Nations in the West, including the United Kingdom and the European Parliament, have dismissed the vote as a pretence, 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 "restore a multi-party democratic system". "This vote is being held for our nation. It is being held for the people of this country. It is not being held for the outside world," a junta spokesman told a news conference last week. Junta chief Min Aung Hlaing cautioned earlier this week that those who refuse to vote are rejecting "the path to democracy".
The country's military is holding a staggered election over the next month. Myanmar is going to the polls in a vote broadly rejected as a farce, with key opposition groups dissolved, many of their leaders jailed and a significant portion of the country unlikely to vote because of an continuing internal conflict. A Staggered Vote Amid Conflict The ruling junta is conducting a staggered election nearly five years after it seized power in a takeover, which sparked widespread opposition and escalated into a devastating conflict. Analysts note the junta, with China's support, is attempting to validate and entrench its power as it looks for a way out of the costly stalemate. "There are no conditions for the exercise of the freedoms of free speech, association or peaceful protest," UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said. More than 200 people have been charged for disrupting or opposing the polls under a recently enacted legislation which carries harsh penalties, including the possibility of execution. Director Mike Tee, performer 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 criticising a promotional video promoting the elections. Immense Challenges and Coercion Civilians are "being coerced from all sides," Mr Türk noted in a statement, adding that armed rebel groups have made warnings asking people to shun 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 lost control of large parts of the country in a string of defeats, but regained territory this year after 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 massive operational hurdle for conducting an election. A Limited Vote 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 remainder deemed too unstable. Results 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 go to the polls, making it difficult to predict a likely turnout. A handful of parties, including the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party, are fielding candidates nationwide, while another 51 parties and independent candidates will compete only at the state or regional levels. Some 40 parties, including Aung San Suu Kyi's National League of Democracy, which achieved decisive wins in 2015 and 2020, have been dissolved. Suu Kyi and many of the party's senior figures have been imprisoned under charges widely condemned as fabricated, while others are in exile. International Condemnation "By splitting the vote into stages, the authorities can adjust tactics if the results in the first phase do not go their way," commented Htin Kyaw Aye, a representative of the watchdog group Spring Sprouts. Nations in the West, including the United Kingdom and the European Parliament, have dismissed the vote as a pretence, 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 "restore a multi-party democratic system". "This vote is being held for our nation. It is being held for the people of this country. It is not being held for the outside world," a junta spokesman told a news conference last week. Junta chief Min Aung Hlaing cautioned earlier this week that those who refuse to vote are rejecting "the path to democracy".