Election fever: USDP supporters on the final day of campaigning in Naypyidaw, Myanmar. — AP
The country will hold the first phase of a general election on Sunday, its first vote in five years and an exercise that critics say will neither restore the country’s fragile democracy undone by a 2021 army takeover, nor end a devastating civil war triggered by the nation’s harsh military rule.
The military has framed the polls as a return to multi-party democracy, likely seeking to add a facade of legitimacy to its rule, which began after the army four years ago ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi.
The takeover triggered widespread popular opposition that has grown into a civil war.
The fighting has complicated holding the polls in many contested areas.
Voting will be held in different parts of the country in three phases, with the second on Jan 11 and the third on Jan 25.
Richard Horsey, a Myanmar analyst for the International Crisis Group, noted that the vote is being run by the same military that was behind the 2021 coup.
“These elections are not credible at all,” he said.
“They do not include any of the political parties that did well in the last election or the election before.”
Horsey says the military’s strategy is for its favoured Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) to win in a landslide, shifting Myanmar from direct military rule to a government with a “civilian veneer” that perpetuates army control.
That would allow the military to claim that holding the election showed progress towards inclusiveness in the spirit of a peace proposal by Asean.
Though 57 parties have fielded candidates, most are posting candidates only in their own home states or regions.
Six parties are competing nationwide and have a chance of winning enough seats to wield political power, but the rules make it likely the pro-military USDP will emerge in position to lead a new government.
In total, nearly 5,000 candidates are competing for more than 1,100 seats in the two chambers of the national legislature and in state and regional legislatures, though the actual number of seats that will be filled will be less where constituencies are not voting. — AP
