Conflict-ravaged Burma Goes to the Polls in Broadly Condemned 'Sham' Election.

Myanmar is going to the polls in a vote broadly rejected as a sham, with major political parties dissolved, many of their leaders jailed and as much as half of the country unable to participate because of an continuing internal conflict.

A Staggered Vote Amid Conflict

The ruling junta is conducting a staggered election nearly five years after it took control in a takeover, which ignited massive protests and spiralled into a devastating conflict.

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

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

More than 200 people have been prosecuted for disrupting or criticising the polls 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 prominent figures found guilty under the law, which was enacted in July. They were each handed a seven-year jail term after criticising a promotional video promoting the elections.

Logistical Nightmare and Coercion

Civilians are "being coerced from all sides," Mr Türk noted in a statement, adding that armed rebel groups have issued their own threats asking people to shun 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 ceded territory of vast areas of the country in a string of defeats, but clawed back territory this year following relentless airstrikes enabled by support from Beijing and Moscow.

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

A Limited Vote

The ballot 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 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 go to the polls, making it difficult to predict a likely turnout.

Six parties, including the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party, are fielding candidates nationwide, while another 51 parties and independent candidates will contest 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 dissolved. Suu Kyi and a number of the party's key leaders have been jailed under charges broadly viewed as fabricated, while others are in hiding abroad.

Criticism and Rejection

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

Western governments, including the UK and the European Parliament, have dismissed the vote as a sham, while neighbouring group Asean has urged negotiations to precede any election.

The Burmese junta has rejected criticism of the polls, maintaining that it aims to "restore a multi-party democratic system".

"This vote 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 news conference last week.

Junta chief Min Aung Hlaing warned earlier this week that those who refuse to vote are turning their back on "progress toward democracy".