Conflict-ravaged Myanmar Votes in Broadly Condemned Political Theater.
The nation is holding an election in a vote broadly rejected 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 ongoing internal conflict.
A Staggered Vote Amid Conflict
The ruling junta is holding a staggered election nearly half a decade after it seized power in a takeover, which ignited massive protests 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 deadlock.
"The environment does not allow for the practice of the rights of freedom of expression, association or peaceful protest," UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker TĂĽrk stated.
More than 200 people have been prosecuted for disrupting or opposing the election under a new law which imposes harsh penalties, including the possibility of execution.
Film director Mike Tee, performer Kyaw Win Htut and comedian Ohn Daing were among the well-known individuals found guilty under the law, which was enacted in July. They were each given a seven-year jail term after criticising a film endorsing the elections.
Immense Challenges and Pressure
Civilians are "being coerced from all sides," Mr TĂĽrk noted in a comment, adding that resistance forces have issued their own threats asking people to boycott the polls.
The army has been engaged on multiple battlefields, against both armed resistance groups who reject the coup, as well as ethnic armies which have their own forces. It lost control 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 significant regions of the country are still under opposition control presents a massive operational hurdle for conducting an election.
A Restricted Poll
The ballot is set to take place in three phases over the next month in two hundred and seventy-four of the country's three hundred and thirty townships, with the remainder deemed too unstable. Outcomes are expected by late 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 possible turnout.
A handful of 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 local levels.
Some 40 parties, including Aung San Suu Kyi's National League of Democracy, which achieved landslide victories in 2015 and 2020, have been banned. Suu Kyi and many of the party's key leaders have been imprisoned under charges broadly viewed as politically motivated, while the rest are in hiding abroad.
International Condemnation
"Through dividing the vote into phases, the authorities can change their approach if the results in the first phase do not go their way," commented Htin Kyaw Aye, a spokesman of the watchdog group Spring Sprouts.
Western governments, including the UK and the European Parliament, have dismissed the vote as a sham, while neighbouring group Asean has urged political dialogue to come before any election.
The Myanmar regime has dismissed criticism of the polls, maintaining that it aims to "restore a multi-party democratic system".
"The election is being held for our nation. It is being held for the citizens of Myanmar. It is not being held for the outside world," a military representative stated at a briefing last week.
Military leader Min Aung Hlaing cautioned earlier this week that those who choose not to participate are turning their back on "progress toward democracy".
