Myanmar’s military rulers opened polling stations Sunday in the second phase of a tightly controlled national election, pressing ahead with a vote that democracy advocates and international observers say is designed to entrench military power under the appearance of civilian governance, according to NDTV.
Voting began at dawn in parts of the country including Kawhmu, a former constituency of detained democratic leader Aung San Suu Kyi, located south of Yangon. The election is the second stage of a three-phase process the junta says will culminate in a transfer of power by January 25, nearly five years after the army seized control in a 2021 coup.
For some voters, the ballot offered a fragile sense of normalcy. “We have many problems, but I voted for the future of our children,” said Than Than Sint, a 54 year old farmer in Kawhmu, expressing cautious hope for peace. Yet such optimism stands in sharp contrast to widespread public skepticism.
The military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party won nearly 90 percent of lower house seats in the first phase of voting last month, an outcome critics say was preordained. Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy, which won a landslide in the annulled 2020 election, has been dissolved, along with other major parties, leaving the ballot dominated by groups aligned with the junta.
Turnout in the first phase was about 50 percent, well below participation in past democratic elections. Voting is not taking place in large swaths of the country controlled by resistance forces, and dozens of constituencies have been canceled due to ongoing fighting. The military has accused rebels of launching attacks during the earlier voting phase, while rights groups report air strikes and offensives targeting civilian areas.
More than 330 people are currently being pursued under laws criminalizing criticism or protest of the election, with penalties of up to 10 years in prison. An estimated 22,000 political prisoners remain behind bars, according to advocacy groups.
“The polls are engineered to ensure military dominance and manufacture legitimacy while violence continues,” said UN human rights expert Tom Andrews.
Under Myanmar’s constitution, drafted during a previous era of military rule, the armed forces are guaranteed 25 percent of parliamentary seats regardless of election results. Junta leader Min Aung Hlaing has not ruled out assuming the presidency once a new government is formed.
As civil war grinds on and tens of thousands are estimated dead, many citizens see the vote not as a path out of crisis, but as another instrument of control.
