Conflict-ravaged Burma Votes in Broadly Condemned Political Theater.

Myanmar is going to the polls in a electoral process broadly rejected as a sham, with major political parties dissolved, many of their leaders imprisoned and a significant portion of the country unlikely to vote because of an ongoing civil war.

A Phased Ballot Amid War

The military government is conducting a phased ballot nearly five years after it seized power in a coup, which ignited widespread opposition and spiralled into a civil war.

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

"The environment does not allow for the exercise of the freedoms of freedom of expression, association or peaceful protest," the United Nations' top human rights official Volker Türk stated.

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

Director Mike Tee, actor Kyaw Win Htut and comedian Ohn Daing were among the prominent figures convicted under the law, which was enacted in July. They were each handed a seven-year jail term after speaking out against a film endorsing the elections.

Immense Challenges and Coercion

Civilians are "facing pressure from all sides," Mr Türk noted in a statement, adding that resistance forces have issued their own threats urging people to boycott the polls.

The army has been engaged on several fronts, against both armed resistance groups who reject the coup, as well as ethnic armies which have their own militias. It lost control of large parts of the country in a series of major setbacks, but clawed back territory this year after relentless airstrikes enabled by support from China and Russia.

All of this and the fact that large parts of the country are still under opposition control presents a massive operational hurdle for conducting an election.

A Restricted Poll

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. Outcomes are expected by late January.

There is not expected to be any voting in up to fifty percent of the country. Even in the townships that are voting, some districts will hold elections, making it challenging to forecast a possible turnout.

A handful of parties, including the junta-supported Union Solidarity and Development Party, are running nominees nationwide, while dozens more parties and independent candidates will contest only at the local levels.

Approximately forty groups, including Aung San Suu Kyi's National League of Democracy, which achieved decisive wins in 2015 and 2020, have been banned. Suu Kyi and a number of the party's key leaders have been imprisoned under charges widely condemned as politically motivated, while others are in hiding abroad.

International Condemnation

"Through dividing the vote into phases, the junta can adjust tactics if the outcomes in the first phase do not go their way," noted 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 rejected the vote as a sham, while neighbouring group Asean has urged political dialogue to precede any election.

The Myanmar regime has rejected condemnation of the polls, insisting that it aims to "restore a democracy with multiple parties".

"This vote is being held for Myanmar. It is being held for the people of Myanmar. It is not being held for the international community," a junta spokesman stated at a news conference last week.

Military leader Min Aung Hlaing warned earlier this week that those who choose not to participate are turning their back on "the path to democracy".