Polls open in Myanmar as military holds first election since 2021 coup

In a 2021 coup, Myanmar’s first general election was held in the country’s first democratically elected government since the military toppled Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi’s democratically elected government.

About a third of the 330 townships in Southeast Asia are being held for the heavily scrutinized election on Sunday, with significant portions of the area unaccessible as a result of a raging civil war between the military and various opposition forces.

On January 11 and January 25, two rounds of voting will be held in addition to the initial phase, with the cancellation of voting in all 65 townships.

According to Al Jazeera’s Tony Cheng, who is reporting from Yangon, the country’s largest city, “This means that at least 20% of the country is currently disenfranchised.” What will be the turnout like in the cities, according to the article?

Polling stations in Yangon opened at 6am on Sunday (23:30 GMT, Saturday), and Cheng reported that there was a “relatively regular flow of voters” once the sun was up.

“But the majority of voters are middle-aged, and there aren’t many young people,” she continued. There are only a few options on the ballot when you examine it. He claimed that the majority of those options are military-related.

The election has been derided by critics as an unfavorable exercise with no opposition to military parties, including the United Nations, some Western nations, and human rights organizations.

Aung San Suu Kyi, who was removed from power by the military months after her party’s National League for Democracy (NLD) won the previous general election in 2020 by a landslide, is still imprisoned and has been disbanded.

The most popular party is likely to be the pro-military Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP).

The country’s 55 million-strong military, led by Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, has argued that the election represents a chance for a new start politically and economically for the country.

The military chief’s ballot was released shortly after the country’s capital, Naypyidaw, opened its polling places.

According to an opinion piece published on Saturday in the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar, the polls “will turn a new page for Myanmar, shifting the narrative from a conflict-affected, crisis-laden country to a new chapter of hope for building peace and reconstructing the economy.”

The elections are being held in a setting of violence and repression, according to UN human rights chief Volker Turk, with fighting still raging in many areas of the nation. There are no restrictions on the people’s ability to freely and meaningfully participate in the exercise of their rights to freedom of expression, association, or peaceful assembly, he claimed last week.

An estimated 90,000 people have been killed, 3.5 million have been displaced, and 22 million people have been left in need of humanitarian aid as a result of the coup in 2021.

More than 22, 000 people are currently being held for political offenses, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.

Armed officers patrolled traffic intersections overnight while security staff was posted outside stations in downtown Yangon. Election officials installed electronic voting machines, which are the first to be used in Myanmar, and set up the necessary equipment.

Write-in candidates and spoiled ballots won’t be permitted by the machines.

Swe Maw, 45, who dismissed international criticism, was one of the city’s first-timers.

He told the AFP news agency, “It’s not an important issue.” “People always like and dislike one another.”

Moe Moe Myint, 40, said it was “impossible for this election to be free and fair” in the central Mandalay region.

When the military has ruined our lives, how can we support a junta-run election? she told AFP. We are “living between life and death,” she continued, “hiding in jungles.”

In two weeks, the third and final round of voting will take place on January 25.

No election results announcement dates or votes counting have been set.

Any military-controlled government, even one with a civilian appearance, is unlikely to receive significant international recognition, according to analysts, and the military’s effort to establish a stable administration in the midst of a protracted conflict is fraught with risks.

Source: Aljazeera