“Mock election” in Myanmar: Junta wants to legitimize power

Vote in a civil war country

“Mock election” in Myanmar: Junta wants to legitimize power

Intimidated voters and a winning party that is already certain: the first election in Myanmar since the military coup is already considered a farce in advance. What do the generals want to do with the vote?

Almost five years after the military coup in Myanmar, the junta is electing a new parliament for the first time in the crisis country. International observers and human rights activists described the controversial vote as a “farce”. The election is to be held in three phases: After Sunday, two further dates are planned on January 11th and 25th. It is still unclear when the results will be known – but probably at the end of January.

The army staged a coup on February 1, 2021 and removed the democratically elected de facto head of government Aung San Suu Kyi from power. The originally promised elections were repeatedly postponed under the pretext that the violence in the country did not allow them.

Meanwhile, it is already certain in advance that the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) will clearly win. Most of the voting takes place in electoral districts where the junta has control. According to estimates, resistance groups and rebels now control more than 50 percent of the country. Due to ongoing fighting, it is not possible to hold an election in many parts of the country.

However, both China and Russia, the main suppliers of aircraft and weapons to the junta, support the elections. Both countries pursue economic interests in Myanmar. China also provided extensive technical assistance in advance of the vote.

Most citizens, on the other hand, would like to boycott the vote, but are essentially forced to vote. “The local government has asked us to vote and wants to check the voter lists street by street – so we can’t avoid it,” said Sein Htay (37) from the largest city Yangon (formerly Rangoon).

Normally, most people would have cast an invalid ballot, he emphasized. But that is not possible this time because the ballot papers are processed by machine and it is immediately displayed who voted and whether a ballot paper is valid or not. “Electronic voting allows the military to manipulate the election results at will,” a political observer told Radio Free Asia.

Critics are convinced that the generals around their boss Min Aung Hlaing simply wanted to legitimize their power through the vote. “The military junta’s sham elections in Myanmar are a desperate attempt to gain international legitimacy after nearly five years of brutal military repression,” said Elaine Pearson, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. Governments that gave the election any credibility signaled a complete lack of interest in civil democracy in Myanmar.