Myanmar’s military holds tightly controlled elections starting Sunday, widely dismissed as a sham to legitimise its rule amid ongoing civil conflict
YANGON: Myanmar’s military junta is presiding over elections starting on Sunday, advertising the vote as a return to democratic normality five years after its coup triggered civil war.
The vote has been widely slated as a charade to rebrand the military’s rule, which voided the results of the last elections in 2020.
The pro-military Union Solidarity and Development Party is by far the biggest participant, providing more than a fifth of all candidates.
Former democratic leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her massively popular National League for Democracy party, which won a landslide in the last vote, are not taking part.
Suu Kyi was jailed on charges rights groups say were politically motivated after the 2021 coup.
According to an advocacy group, some 22,000 political prisoners are languishing in junta jails.
Organisations that won 90% of seats in 2020 will not be on Sunday’s ballot, according to the Asian Network for Free Elections (ANFREL).
Polling is taking place in three phases spread over a month using new electronic voting machines.
The vote will not take place in areas controlled by rebel forces, where the military has lost swathes of the country.
Authorities have cancelled voting in 65 of the 330 elected seats of the lower house due to the conflict.
More than one million stateless Rohingya refugees living in exile in Bangladesh will also have no say.
Seats in parliament will be allocated under a system which ANFREL says heavily favours larger parties.
Only six of the 57 parties standing have qualified as nationwide parties able to contest seats in multiple areas.
Regardless of the outcome, a military-drafted constitution dictates a quarter of parliamentary seats be reserved for the armed forces.
ANFREL says the Union Election Commission overseeing the vote is an organ of the Myanmar military.
The head of the commission, Than Soe, is subject to an EU travel ban and sanctions for “undermining democracy”.
Social media sites including Facebook, Instagram and X have all been blocked since the coup.
The junta has introduced legislation punishing public protest or criticism of the poll with up to a decade behind bars.
Myanmar has invited international monitors to witness the poll, but few countries have answered.
On Friday, state media reported a monitoring delegation had arrived from Belarus.
