Counting down the days: Pedestrians waiting to cross a road in Yangon under national flags displayed ahead of the election. — AFP
THE United Nations said Myanmar’s junta is using violence and intimidation to force people to vote in upcoming military-controlled elections, while armed opposition groups are using similar tactics to keep people away.
“The military authorities in Myanmar must stop using brutal violence to compel people to vote and stop arresting people for expressing any dissenting views,” UN rights chief Volker Turk said in a statement on Tuesday.
Myanmar’s junta is set to preside over voting starting Sunday, touting heavily restricted polls as a return to democracy five years after it ousted the last elected government, triggering civil war.
But former civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi remains jailed and her hugely popular party dissolved after soldiers ended the nation’s decade-long democratic experiment in February 2021.
International monitors have dismissed the phased month-long vote as a rebranding of martial rule.
Turk, who last month said holding elections under the current circumstances is “unfathomable”, warned on Tuesday that civilians are being threatened by both the military authorities and armed opposition groups over their participation in the polls.
His statement highlighted the dozens of individuals reportedly detained under an “election protection law” for exercising their freedom of expression.
Many have been slapped with “extremely harsh sentences”, the statement said, pointing to three youths who were sentenced to between 42 and 49 years’ jail for hanging up anti-election posters.
The UN rights office also received reports from displaced people in parts of the country who had been warned they would be attacked or their homes seized if they did not return to vote.
Turk said people are also facing “serious threats” from armed groups opposing the military, including nine women teachers from Kyaikto who were reportedly abducted last month on their way to attend ballot training.
They were then “released with warnings from the perpetrators”, the statement said.
“These elections are clearly taking place in an environment of violence and repression,” Turk said. — AFP
