Myanmar presses ahead with wartime elections as critics call vote a military charade

Myanmar has resumed voting in the second phase of its three-part general elections, even as a brutal civil war rages on and critics accuse the military of using the polls to legitimise its grip on power.

Polling stations opened at 6am local time on Sunday across 100 townships in parts of Sagaing, Magway, Mandalay, Bago and Tanintharyi regions, as well as in Mon, Shan, Kachin, Kayah and Kayin states. Many of the areas voting have seen clashes in recent months or remain under tight security.

The vote is unfolding nearly five years after Myanmar’s military overthrew a civilian government in a 2021 coup, arresting its leader, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, and plunging the country into a civil war that has engulfed large swathes of the nation’s 51 million people.

Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy, which won a landslide victory in the 2020 election, has been dissolved, along with dozens of other anti-military parties, after failing to register for the new polls under rules imposed by the junta.

Because of the conflict, the election is being held in three phases. The first took place on December 28 in 102 of Myanmar’s 330 townships, while a third round is scheduled for January 25. At least 65 townships have been excluded entirely because of ongoing fighting.

After the first phase, the military said turnout reached 52 percent. The pro-military Union Solidarity and Development Party, widely seen as a civilian proxy for the armed forces, claimed it had won more than 80 percent of the seats contested in the lower house.

Myanmar’s parliament has two chambers with a combined 664 seats. Under the constitution, the military automatically controls 25 percent of seats in each house, giving it effective veto power over constitutional change and enormous influence over any future government. The party or bloc with a parliamentary majority can select the president, who then appoints a cabinet.

Voting also took place on Sunday in Yangon, Myanmar’s largest city, including in Kawhmu, the former constituency of Aung San Suu Kyi, about 25 kilometres south of the city centre.

International observers and rights groups have been scathing. The United Nations has described the vote as a “sham” designed to launder the junta’s legitimacy.

The military has reinforced its control around the vote with a web of repressive laws. New regulations make protesting or criticising the elections punishable by up to 10 years in prison. According to the UN, more than 200 people are currently facing charges under those measures.

Separately, at least 22,000 people remain detained in Myanmar for political offences, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.