War-torn Myanmar Goes to the Polls in Broadly Condemned 'Sham' Election.

Myanmar is going to the polls in a vote widely dismissed as a sham, with key opposition groups banned, many of their leaders imprisoned and as much as half of the country unlikely to vote because of an continuing civil war.

A Phased Ballot Amid Conflict

The ruling junta is conducting a staggered election nearly five years after it seized power in a takeover, which sparked massive protests and escalated into a devastating conflict.

Observers say the military regime, with backing from Beijing, is attempting to validate and entrench its power as it looks for a way out of the costly stalemate.

"The environment does not allow for the exercise of the freedoms of freedom of expression, association or peaceful protest," the United Nations' top human rights official Volker Türk said.

Over two hundred people have been prosecuted for disrupting or criticising the polls under a recently enacted legislation which carries severe punishments, including the possibility of execution.

Director Mike Tee, actor Kyaw Win Htut and entertainer Ohn Daing were among the well-known individuals convicted under the law, which was passed in July. They were each given a prison sentence of seven years after speaking out against a film endorsing the elections.

Immense Challenges and Pressure

Civilians are "facing pressure from all sides," Mr Türk said in a comment, pointing out that resistance forces have issued their own threats asking people to boycott the polls.

The military has been engaged on multiple battlefields, against both pro-democracy fighters who reject the coup, as well as ethnic armies which have their own forces. It ceded territory of vast areas of the country in a string of defeats, but regained territory this year following relentless airstrikes made possible through support from China and Russia.

All of this and the fact that large parts of the country are still under opposition control presents a massive operational hurdle for conducting an election.

A Limited Vote

Voting is set to take place in three phases over the coming weeks in two hundred and seventy-four of the country's three hundred and thirty townships, with the rest deemed not secure enough. Outcomes are expected by late January.

There is not expected to be any voting in up to fifty percent of the country. Even in the townships that are voting, some districts will hold elections, making it difficult to predict a likely turnout.

Six parties, including the junta-supported Union Solidarity and Development Party, are running nominees nationwide, while dozens more parties and non-aligned contenders will compete only at the local levels.

Approximately forty groups, including Aung San Suu Kyi's National League of Democracy, which achieved decisive wins in 2015 and 2020, have been dissolved. Suu Kyi and many of the party's senior figures have been jailed under charges broadly viewed as fabricated, while others are in hiding abroad.

Criticism and Rejection

"Through dividing the vote into stages, the junta can change their approach if the results in the initial round do not go their way," commented Htin Kyaw Aye, a representative of the election-monitoring group Spring Sprouts.

Nations in the West, including the United Kingdom and the European Parliament, have dismissed the vote as a sham, while regional bloc Asean has urged political dialogue to come before any election.

The Burmese junta has rejected condemnation of the polls, maintaining that it aims to "restore a democracy with multiple parties".

"This vote is being held for Myanmar. It is being held for the people of this country. It is not being held for the outside world," a junta spokesman stated at a briefing last week.

Military leader Min Aung Hlaing warned earlier this week that those who refuse to vote are rejecting "the path to democracy".