The military government of Myanmar has harsh new penalties for protesting its planned election, with some critics facing years in prison for dissention.
The new law became effective on Tuesday, months before the end of the year, according to the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar.
The bill, which opposition groups and international observers have criticized as a plot to uphold military rule, prohibits “any speech, organizing, inciting, protesting, or distributing leaflets in order to destroy a part of the electoral process.”
The sentences for breaking the law are three to seven years in prison, while group offenses are five to ten years in prison.
Additionally, the law criminalizes causing damage to voters’ or polling stations, as well as intimidating or abusing voters, candidates, or election workers, with sentences as high as 20 years. The law mandates that “everyone involved in the crime faces the death penalty” if anyone is killed in an election-related incident.
In a 2021 coup that sparked a multipolar civil war, Myanmar’s military-led government seized power, leaving the military’s majority in place. Before the poll, some state census workers went on a deployment last year to gather data before there was opposition and security risk.
According to preliminary results, “significant security constraints” prevented the collection of data from an estimated 19 million of the nation’s 51 million people.
Analysts predicted that the military’s numerous anti-coup fighter and ethnic armed groups, which are at odds with each other, might launch offensives in the run-up to the election as a show of support for their positions.
Last month, a UN expert called on the international community to reject the election plan as “a fraud.”
Source: Aljazeera
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