Conflict-ravaged Burma Goes to the Polls in Broadly Condemned 'Sham' Election.
The nation is holding an election in a vote widely dismissed as a farce, with major political parties dissolved, many of their leaders jailed and as much as half of the country unable to participate because of an continuing civil war.
A Staggered Vote Amid Conflict
The ruling junta is holding a staggered election nearly five years after it took control in a coup, which sparked massive protests and spiralled into a civil war.
Observers say the junta, with China's support, 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, assembly or peaceful protest," UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said.
More than 200 people have been prosecuted for disrupting or opposing the election under a recently enacted legislation which imposes severe punishments, including the possibility of execution.
Film director Mike Tee, actor Kyaw Win Htut and entertainer Ohn Daing were among the prominent figures found guilty under the law, which was enacted in July. They were each handed a seven-year jail term after criticising a promotional video promoting the elections.
Logistical Nightmare and Pressure
Civilians are "being coerced from all sides," Mr Türk noted in a statement, adding that armed rebel groups have issued their own threats urging people to shun the polls.
The military has been engaged on multiple battlefields, against both armed resistance groups who reject the coup, as well as ethnic armed organisations which have their own forces. It ceded territory of vast areas of the country in a string of defeats, but regained territory this year after 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 rebel administration presents a huge logistical challenge for holding an election.
A Restricted Poll
Voting is set to take place in three phases over the next month in 274 of the country's three hundred and thirty townships, with the rest deemed not secure enough. Results are expected around the end of January.
There is not expected to be any voting in as much as one half of the country. Even in the townships that are voting, not all constituencies will hold elections, making it challenging to forecast a likely turnout.
Six parties, including the junta-supported 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 senior figures have been jailed under charges widely condemned as fabricated, while others are in exile.
International Condemnation
"Through dividing the vote into phases, the junta can adjust tactics if the results in the first phase do not go their way," commented Htin Kyaw Aye, a representative of the election-monitoring group Spring Sprouts.
Western governments, including the UK and the EU legislature, 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 condemnation 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 junta spokesman told a news conference last week.
Military leader Min Aung Hlaing warned earlier this week that those who refuse to vote are rejecting "the path to democracy".