War-torn Burma Goes to the Polls in Widely Criticised Political Theater.

Myanmar is going to the polls in a electoral process broadly rejected as a sham, with major political parties dissolved, numerous figures imprisoned and as much as half of the country unable to participate because of an ongoing internal conflict.

A Staggered Vote Amid Conflict

The ruling junta is conducting a phased ballot nearly five years after it seized power in a coup, which ignited massive protests and escalated into a civil war.

Observers say the military regime, with China's support, is seeking to legitimise and entrench its power as it looks for a way out of the devastating deadlock.

"There are no conditions for the practice of the freedoms of free speech, association or peaceful assembly," the United Nations' top human rights official Volker Türk said.

Over two hundred people have been charged for disrupting or opposing the election under a recently enacted legislation which imposes harsh penalties, including the death penalty.

Film 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 handed a seven-year jail term after speaking out against a promotional video promoting the elections.

Immense Challenges and Coercion

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

The army has been fighting on multiple battlefields, against both armed resistance groups who reject the coup, as well as ethnic armed organisations which have their own militias. It lost control of vast areas of the country in a string of defeats, but clawed back territory this year after sustained aerial bombardment 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 huge operational hurdle for conducting an election.

A Restricted Poll

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 too unstable. Outcomes are expected by late January.

There is not expected to be any voting in as much as one half of the country. Even in the townships that are voting, some districts will hold elections, making it challenging to predict a likely turnout.

Six parties, including the junta-supported Union Solidarity and Development Party, are fielding candidates nationwide, while another 51 parties and non-aligned contenders will compete only at the local levels.

Some 40 parties, including Aung San Suu Kyi's National League of Democracy, which scored decisive wins in 2015 and 2020, have been banned. Suu Kyi and many of the party's senior figures have been jailed under charges widely condemned as fabricated, while others are in hiding abroad.

International Condemnation

"Through dividing the vote into stages, the authorities can adjust tactics if the results in the initial round do not go their way," noted Htin Kyaw Aye, a spokesman of the watchdog group Spring Sprouts.

Nations in the West, including the United Kingdom and the European Parliament, have rejected the vote as a pretence, while neighbouring group Asean has called for negotiations to come before any election.

The Burmese junta has dismissed criticism of the polls, insisting that it aims to "return [the country] to a multi-party democratic system".

"The election is being held for our nation. It is being held for the people of Myanmar. It is not being held for the outside world," a junta spokesman stated at a briefing last week.

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