War-torn Myanmar Votes in Widely Criticised 'Sham' Election.
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 as much as half of the country unlikely to vote because of an continuing internal conflict.
A Phased Ballot Amid Conflict
The ruling junta is holding a phased ballot nearly five years after it took control in a coup, which ignited widespread opposition and spiralled into a devastating conflict.
Observers say the junta, with China's support, is attempting to validate and consolidate its power as it seeks a way out of the devastating stalemate.
"There are no conditions for the practice of the rights of freedom of expression, association or peaceful assembly," 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 carries severe punishments, including the possibility of execution.
Director Mike Tee, performer Kyaw Win Htut and entertainer Ohn Daing were among the prominent figures convicted under the law, which was enacted in July. They were each given a prison sentence of seven years after speaking out against a film promoting the elections.
Immense Challenges and Pressure
Civilians are "being coerced from all sides," Mr Türk said in a comment, pointing out that resistance forces have made warnings asking people to shun the polls.
The army has been fighting on several fronts, against both armed resistance groups who oppose the coup, as well as ethnic armed organisations which have their own forces. It lost control of vast areas of the country in a series of major setbacks, but clawed back territory this year following relentless airstrikes enabled by support from China and Russia.
All of this and the fact that large parts of the country are still under opposition control presents a massive logistical challenge 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 not secure enough. Outcomes are expected around the end of January.
There is not expected to be any voting in up to fifty percent of the country. Even in the townships that are voting, not all constituencies will go to the polls, making it challenging to forecast a likely turnout.
A handful of parties, including the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party, are fielding candidates nationwide, while dozens more parties and non-aligned contenders will compete 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 senior figures have been imprisoned under charges widely condemned as politically motivated, while the rest are in exile.
International Condemnation
"By splitting the vote into phases, the junta can change their approach if the outcomes in the initial round do not go their way," noted Htin Kyaw Aye, a spokesman of the election-monitoring group Spring Sprouts.
Nations in the West, including the United Kingdom and the European Parliament, have dismissed the vote as a pretence, while regional bloc Asean has called for negotiations to come before any election.
The Burmese junta has rejected condemnation of the polls, insisting that it aims to "return [the country] to a democracy with multiple parties".
"This vote is being held for our nation. It is being held for the people 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 warned earlier this week that those who refuse to vote are turning their back on "progress toward democracy".