War-torn Burma Votes in Broadly Condemned Political Theater.

Myanmar is going to the polls in a vote broadly rejected as a farce, with key opposition groups banned, many of their leaders imprisoned and as much as half of the country unable to participate because of an ongoing civil war.

A Phased Ballot Amid Conflict

The ruling junta is holding a phased ballot nearly half a decade after it took control in a takeover, which ignited widespread opposition and escalated into a civil war.

Observers say the junta, with China's support, is attempting to validate and entrench its power as it seeks a way out of the costly deadlock.

"The environment does not allow for the practice of the freedoms of free speech, association or peaceful protest," UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said.

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

Director Mike Tee, actor Kyaw Win Htut and comedian Ohn Daing were among the well-known individuals found guilty 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 "being coerced from all sides," Mr Türk noted in a comment, pointing out that armed rebel groups have made warnings asking people to boycott the polls.

The army has been engaged on several fronts, against both pro-democracy fighters who oppose the coup, as well as ethnic armed organisations 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 Beijing and Moscow.

All of this and the fact that large parts of the country are still under rebel administration presents a massive operational hurdle for holding an election.

A Limited Vote

Voting is set to take place in three rounds over the next month in two hundred and seventy-four of the country's three hundred and thirty townships, with the rest deemed not secure enough. Results are expected around the end of January.

There is unlikely to be any voting in as much as one half of the country. Even in the townships that are voting, some districts will go to the polls, making it challenging to predict a likely turnout.

Six parties, including the military-backed 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 scored landslide victories in 2015 and 2020, have been banned. Suu Kyi and a number of the party's senior figures have been jailed under charges widely condemned as politically motivated, while others are in exile.

Criticism and Rejection

"By splitting the vote into stages, the junta can change their approach if the outcomes in the first phase do not go their way," commented Htin Kyaw Aye, a spokesman of the election-monitoring group Spring Sprouts.

Nations in the West, including the United Kingdom and the EU legislature, have dismissed the vote as a pretence, while neighbouring group Asean has called for political dialogue to come before any election.

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

"The election is being held for our nation. It is being held for the people of this country. It is not being held for the international community," a junta spokesman told a briefing last week.

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