Myanmar Election: Junta ‘Sham’ Vote Condemned 🇲🇲

Myanmar is holding an election widely dismissed as a sham, with major political parties dissolved, many of their leaders jailed, and as much as half the country unlikely to vote due to an ongoing civil war.

Myanmar Holds Widely Condemned Election

The military government is holding a phased ballot nearly five years after seizing power in a coup, which sparked widespread opposition and spiraled into a civil war. Observers say the junta, with China’s support, is seeking to legitimize and entrench its power as it seeks a way out of the devastating stalemate.

More than 200 people have been charged for disrupting or opposing the polls under a new law carrying severe punishments, including the death penalty. Film director Mike Tee, actor Kyaw Win Htut, and comedian Ohn Daing were among those convicted under the law after criticizing a film promoting the elections, state media reported.

The United Nations’ top human rights official, Volker Türk, stated, “There are no conditions for the exercise of the rights of freedom of expression, association or peaceful assembly.” He added that civilians are “being coerced from all sides,” with armed rebel groups issuing threats to boycott the polls.

The military has been fighting on several fronts against armed resistance groups opposing the coup, as well as ethnic armies. While it lost control of large parts of the country, it has clawed back territory this year following airstrikes enabled by support from China and Russia.

The civil war has resulted in thousands of deaths, displaced millions, destroyed the economy, and created a humanitarian crisis. A devastating earthquake in March and international funding cuts have worsened the situation.

Voting is set to take place in three phases over the next month in 274 of the country’s 330 townships, with the remaining areas deemed too unstable. Results are expected around the end of January. It is not expected that voting will occur in as much as one half of the country.

Six parties, including the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party, are fielding candidates nationwide, while another 51 parties and independent candidates will contest only at the state or regional levels. Some 40 parties, including Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League of Democracy, have been banned.

Suu Kyi and many of the party’s key leaders have been jailed on charges widely condemned as politically motivated, while others are in exile. According to Htin Kyaw Aye, a spokesman of the election-monitoring group Spring Sprouts, “By splitting the vote into phases, the authorities can adjust tactics if the results in the first phase do not go their way.”

Ral Uk Thang, a resident in the western Chin state, believes civilians “don’t want the election.” “The military does not know how to govern our country. They only work for the benefit of their high-ranking leaders,” he said. “When Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s party was in power, we experienced a bit of democracy. But now all we do is cry and shed tears.”

Western governments, including the United Kingdom and the European Parliament, have dismissed the vote as a sham, while regional bloc Asean has called for political dialogue to precede any election. The Burmese junta has rejected criticism, maintaining that it aims to “return [the country] to a multi-party democratic system.”

Junta spokesman Zaw Min Tun stated the election is “being held for Myanmar. It is being held for the people of Myanmar. It is not being held for the international community.” Junta chief Min Aung Hlaing warned earlier this week that those who refuse to vote are rejecting “progress toward democracy.”