Myanmar junta stages election after five years of civil war
While former civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi remains in prison, her hugely popular party was shut down and she did not join.
Campaigners, Western diplomats and the UN’s human rights chief condemned the month-long phased vote, citing a ballot box filled by military allies and a harsh crackdown on dissent.
The pro-military Union Solidarity and Development Party is expected to emerge as the largest party, critics say.
The Southeast Asian nation of about 50 million people is torn by civil war and there will be no voting in rebel-held areas.
The first of three tours in junta-controlled territory, including constituencies in the cities of Yangon, Mandalay and the capital Naypyidaw, began at 6:00 am (23:30 GMT on Saturday).
“The election is very important and will bring the best for the country,” said Bo Saw, the first voter at the polling station in Yangon’s Kamayut District, near Suu Kyi’s vacant home. “The first priority must be the restoration of a safe and peaceful situation,” the 63-year-old told AFP.
slow start
Snake-shaped queues of voters formed in front of voting centers in the last elections in 2020, which were declared invalid when the army ousted Suu Kyi and seized power in 2021.
But this time, journalists and polling staff outnumbered early voters at the city center station near the glittering Shule Pagoda, the site of massive pro-democracy protests after the coup.
Swe Maw, 45, who was among a small number of early voters, dismissed international criticism.
“It’s not a big deal,” he said. “There are always people who love and people who don’t.”
In the process, there have been none of the fiery public rallies that Suu Kyi once commanded, and the junta has launched a debilitating pre-vote offensive to retake the territory.
“It is impossible for this election to be free and fair,” said Moe Moe Myint, who spent the last two months “escaping” from the junta’s air strikes.
“How can we support a junta-run election when this army is destroying our lives?” he told AFP from a village in the central Mandalay region.
“We are homeless, hiding in the forests and living between life and death,” the 40-year-old said.
Junta chief Min Aung Hlaing did not respond to AFP requests for an interview but has consistently framed the polls as a path to reconciliation.
electronic voting
The military ruled Myanmar for most of its post-independence history, before a 10-year hiatus; In a burst of optimism and reform, a civilian government took the reins.
But after Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party defeated pro-military opponents in the 2020 election, Min Aung Hlaing seized power in a coup alleging widespread voter fraud.
Suu Kyi is serving a 27-year prison sentence on charges that human rights groups reject as politically motivated.
“I don’t think he will find these elections meaningful at all,” his son Kim Aris said from his home in Britain. he said.
Most of the parties in the 2020 election, including Suu Kyi’s party, have since been dissolved.
The Asian Network for Free Elections says 90 percent of the seats in the last election went to organizations that will not take part in Sunday’s vote.
The new electronic voting machines will not allow write-in candidates or spoiled ballots.
‘Oppression’
The junta is prosecuting more than 200 people for violating draconian law banning “disruption” of the poll, including protest or criticism.
“These elections are clearly taking place in an environment of violence and repression,” UN rights chief Volker Turk said this week. he said.
The second round of voting will be held two weeks before the third and final round on January 25, but the junta has conceded that elections cannot be held in almost any of the five lower house constituencies.
When the military seized power, it crushed pro-democracy protests and many activists left cities to fight as guerrillas alongside ethnic minority armies that have long dominated Myanmar’s fringes.
“There are many ways to achieve peace in the country, but they did not choose them; instead they chose to hold elections,” said Zaw Tun, an officer with the pro-democracy People’s Defense Force in the northern province of Sagaing.
“We will continue to fight.”
