Voting begins in Myanmar’s restricted election after five years of civil war

YANGON – A trickle of voters made their way to Myanmar’s heavily restricted polls on Dec 28, with the ruling junta touting the exercise as a return to democracy five years after it ousted the last elected government, triggering civil war.

Former civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi remains jailed, while her hugely popular party has been dissolved and was not taking part.

Campaigners, Western diplomats and the UN’s rights chief have all

condemned the phased month-long vote

, citing a ballot stacked with military allies and a stark crackdown on dissent.

The pro-military Union Solidarity and Development Party is widely expected to emerge as the largest one, in what critics say would be a rebranding of martial rule.

“We guarantee it to be a free and fair election,” junta chief Min Aung Hlaing told reporters in the capital Naypyitaw, where he cast his ballot after polls opened at 6am (7.30am Singapore time).

“It’s organised by the military, we can’t let our name be tarnished.”

The South-east Asian nation of some 50 million is riven by civil war and there will be no voting in areas controlled by rebel factions which have risen up to challenge military rule.

Slow start

Snaking queues of voters formed outside polling stations in the last election in 2020, which the military declared void when it ousted Ms Suu Kyi and seized power in 2021.

But this time, journalists and polling staff outnumbered early voters at a downtown station near the gleaming Sule Pagoda – the site of huge pro-democracy protests after the coup.

Among a trickle of early voters, 45-year-old Swe Maw dismissed international criticism.

“It’s not an important matter,” he said. “There are always people who like and dislike.”

At another polling station near Ms Suu Kyi’s vacant home, Mr Bo Saw, the first voter, said the election was “very important and will bring the best for the country”.

“The first priority should be restoring a safe and peaceful situation,” the 63-year-old told AFP.

In total, only around 100 people voted at the two stations during their first hour of operation, according to an AFP tally.

The run-up has seen none of the feverish public rallies that Ms Suu Kyi once commanded, and the junta has waged a withering pre-vote offensive to claw back territory.

“I don’t think this election will change or improve the political situation in this country,” said 23-year-old Hman Thit, displaced by the post-coup conflict.

“I think the air strikes and atrocities on our home towns will continue even after the election,” he said in a rebel-held area of Pekon township in Shan state.

Electronic voting

The military ruled Myanmar for most of its post-independence history before a 10-year interlude saw a civilian government take the reins in a burst of optimism and reform.

But after Ms Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party trounced pro-military opponents in 2020 elections, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing snatched power in a coup, alleging widespread voter fraud.

The military put down pro-democracy protests and many activists quit the cities to fight as guerrillas alongside ethnic minority armies that have long held sway in Myanmar’s fringes.

There is no official death toll for Myanmar’s civil war and estimates vary widely, but global conflict monitoring group ACLED tallies media reports of violence and estimates that 90,000 have been killed on all sides since the coup.

Ms Suu Kyi is serving a 27-year sentence for charges rights groups dismiss as politically motivated.

“I don’t think she would consider these elections to be meaningful in any way,” her son Kim Aris said from his home in Britain.

Most parties from the 2020 vote, including Ms Suu Kyi’s, have since been dissolved.

The Asian Network for Free Elections says 90 per cent of the seats in the last elections went to organisations that will not appear on Dec 28’s ballots.

New electronic voting machines will not allow write-in candidates or spoiled ballots.

‘Disruption’ of vote banned

The junta is pursuing prosecutions against more than 200 people for violating draconian legislation forbidding “disruption” of the poll, including protest or criticism.

The United Nations in Myanmar said it was “critical that the future of Myanmar is determined through a free, fair, inclusive and credible process that reflects the will of its people”.

The second round of polling will take place in two weeks’ time before the third and final round on Jan 25, but the junta has conceded elections cannot happen in almost one in five Lower House constituencies. AFP