As some boycott Myanmar’s flawed election, others hope for change
Sui-Lee Wee
Yangon: When voters began going to the polls on Sunday for the first round of the heavily stage-managed election in Myanmar, the result was almost certain. It was almost certain that the military junta, which had ruled the country since 2021 when it seized power, would maintain its tight grip on power.
But some still hoped there was room for change.
“We have to do something,” said Nant Khin Aye Oo, chairman of the Kayin People’s Party, one of the few parties not prevented from running candidates. “We can’t live under this anymore.”
The military has ruled Myanmar for most of the country’s history since its independence from Britain in 1948. For nearly a decade starting in 2010, the country was seen as a paragon of democracy after the military handed over some powers to the civilian government led by Aung San Suu Kyi, long the country’s popular opposition leader.
This ended in 2021 when the military announced that it would not recognize the 2020 election victory of Suu Kyi’s party. There has been a widespread feeling in Myanmar ever since that the generals have seriously mismanaged the country.
For the junta, the elections are being held in part to appease neighboring China, which has been pressuring it to hold elections as a way out of a four-year civil war. The military also hopes that elections that will determine the next parliament will give it an air of legitimacy that could give other countries the opportunity to embrace a state that is now largely marginalized.
Since voting lasts three days, it will be difficult to draw quick conclusions. Results are not expected until the end of January.
Despite having a firm grip on power, the junta left nothing to chance. 40 political parties were closed, including the country’s main opposition party, the National League for Democracy. The army’s proxy party, the Union Solidarity and Development Party, actually works unquestionably in many areas. More than 100 people have been arrested since July for violating a new law that criminalizes criticizing the election.
Still, some members of the country’s dwindling opposition said they were determined to make their voices heard. Veteran pro-democracy activist Ko Ko Gyi, who is running for a People’s Party seat in Yangon, acknowledged there were problems with the elections but said they were the most pragmatic way forward. “What is the better alternative?” he asked.
“Whether we want it or not, we cannot take the army out of politics.”
Like others, Ko Ko Gyi said the vote could result in a parliament with sufficient, if limited, power to shift some power away from the military’s commander-in-chief, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing.
Amara Thiha, a nonresident researcher at the Stimson Center, said the elections could bring incremental change to Myanmar.
“Everyone is tired anyway, even the SAC,” he said, referring to the State Administrative Council, the junta’s official name. “Nothing could be worse than this.”
However, other sections of the opposition condemned any participation in Sunday’s vote, arguing that it contributed to the appearance of democracy. Many called it a sham election. Myanmar’s exiled shadow government, the National Unity Government, said that any officials, poll workers or candidates participating in this election were collaborating with an “enemy of the state.” The National League for Democracy, the party of detained Suu Kyi, has repeatedly said it will boycott the elections.
Hours before the polls opened, social media images showed an explosion at the USDP office in Myawaddy. According to a local official in Myawaddy, one person was killed and at least a dozen others were injured. A similar incident occurred at a polling station in the city of Mandalay, according to the city’s prime minister.
In the country’s capital, Naypyidaw, Min Aung Hlaing appeared grinning after casting his vote, showing off his purple-painted left pinky finger, indicating he had voted.
“We can safely guarantee that the elections are free and fair because they are conducted by the military,” he said. Our army will not allow its reputation to be damaged.
Few people believe this. Many people interviewed in Myanmar before the vote said they had decided not to participate in the vote.
“I don’t think this is an election I should vote for,” said Kyaw Saw Han, an independent analyst based in Yangon, the country’s commercial capital. “Old wines will be in new bottles.”
The polls were widely condemned by many governments in the West, but especially by the Trump administration, which said plans for “free and fair elections” represented progress for the country. Ballots will be cast only in areas under military control, estimated to be less than half of the country’s territory.
Whatever the election results, people hope that living conditions in the country of more than 50 million people will soon begin to improve. Myanmar’s economy has shrunk by 9 percent since 2020. The military printed an estimated 30 trillion kyats ($21.3 billion) to finance the war effort, causing inflation to soar to 34 percent. Staple food items such as eggs and cooking oil are now unaffordable for the average family.
The military also launched brutal air strikes against its citizens. More than 3.5 million people were internally displaced. Major cities like Yangon had to get by with just eight hours of power a day. Health experts now say diseases such as malaria could spread across Myanmar’s borders.
Kyaw Min Htet, 30, who is running for parliament in the Yangon region with the People’s Pioneer Party, whose plan for the country is “reconstruction, rehabilitation and recovery”, said that many of his friends took up arms against the junta after the coup, but all this brought was the targeting of civilians and the destruction of villages and infrastructure.
“I don’t believe armed revolution is the right thing,” he said.
His colleague Htet Htet Soe Oo, 34, joined the party three months ago and is running as a candidate for the lower house. He said he decided to run because working as a party is stronger than working as an individual.
“We should stop arguing,” Htet Htet Soe Oo said. “What we need is dialogue and negotiation”
This article was first published on: New York Times.
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