War-torn Burma Votes in Broadly Condemned Political Theater.
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 military government is conducting a phased ballot nearly five years after it took control in a coup, which ignited massive protests and escalated into a devastating conflict.
Analysts note the junta, with backing from Beijing, is attempting to validate and entrench its power as it looks for a way out of the devastating deadlock.
"The environment does not allow for the practice of the freedoms of freedom of expression, association or peaceful assembly," the United Nations' top human rights official Volker TĂĽrk said.
More than 200 people have been prosecuted for interfering with or opposing the polls under a new law which carries severe punishments, including the death penalty.
Film director Mike Tee, actor Kyaw Win Htut and comedian Ohn Daing were among the prominent figures convicted under the law, which was passed in July. They were each handed a prison sentence of seven years after speaking out against a film endorsing the elections.
Logistical Nightmare and Pressure
Civilians are "being coerced from all sides," Mr TĂĽrk noted in a comment, pointing out that armed rebel groups have issued their own threats asking people to boycott 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 lost control of large parts of the country in a series of major setbacks, but regained territory this year after relentless airstrikes made possible through support from China and Russia.
All of this and the fact that significant regions of the country are still under rebel administration presents a massive operational hurdle for conducting an election.
A Limited Vote
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 rest deemed too unstable. Results are expected by late 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 go to the polls, making it challenging to forecast a possible turnout.
A handful of parties, including the junta-supported Union Solidarity and Development Party, are running nominees nationwide, while dozens more parties and independent candidates will compete only at the local levels.
Some 40 parties, including Aung San Suu Kyi's National League of Democracy, which scored decisive wins in 2015 and 2020, have been dissolved. Suu Kyi and many of the party's key leaders have been imprisoned under charges broadly viewed as fabricated, while others are in exile.
International Condemnation
"By splitting the vote into stages, the junta can change their approach if the outcomes 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 United Kingdom and the EU legislature, have dismissed the vote as a sham, while neighbouring group Asean has called for negotiations to come before any election.
The Burmese junta has rejected criticism of the polls, maintaining that it aims to "return [the country] to 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 military representative told a briefing last week.
Junta chief Min Aung Hlaing cautioned earlier this week that those who refuse to vote are turning their back on "the path to democracy".
