The first of three phases of voting has finished in Myanmar, in an election widely dismissed as a “sham”, with major political parties dissolved, leaders jailed and as much as half the country not expected to vote due to an ongoing civil war.
The military government is holding a phased ballot nearly five years after it seized power in a coup, prompting widespread opposition and spiralling into civil war.
Observers say the junta, with China’s support, is seeking to legitimise its power as it seeks a way out of the devastating stalemate.
More than 200 people have been charged for disrupting or opposing the polls under a new law which carries severe punishments, including the death penalty.
There were reports of explosions and air strikes across multiple regions as the first round of voting took place on Sunday. A rocket attack on an uninhabited house in the Mandalay region in the early hours of the morning injured three people, the region’s chief minister told the BBC.
Separately, a series of explosions damaged more than 10 houses in the Myawaddy township, near the border with Thailand, late on Saturday. A resident told the BBC that a child was killed and three others were taken to hospital.
Voters have told the BBC that the election feels more “disciplined and systematic” than previous polls.
“The experience of voting has changed a lot,” said Ma Su ZarChi, who lives in the Mandalay region.
“Before I voted, I was afraid. Now that I have voted, I feel relieved. I cast my ballot as someone who has tried their best for the country.”
First-time voter Ei Pyay Phyo Maung, 22, said she was voting because she believed it is “the responsibility of every citizen”.
“My hope is for the lower classes – right now, the prices of goods are skyrocketing, and I want to support someone who can bring them down for those struggling the most,” she said.
“I want a president who provides equally for all people.”
The Burmese junta has rejected criticism of the polls, maintaining that it aims to “return [the country] to a multi-party democratic system”.
After casting his vote at a highly fortified polling station in the capital, junta chief Min Aung Hlaing told the BBC that the election would be free and fair.
“I am the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces, a civil servant. I can’t just say that I want to be president,” he said, stressing that there were three phases of the election.
Earlier this week, he warned that those who refuse to vote were rejecting “progress toward democracy”.
Film director Mike Tee, actor Kyaw Win Htut and comedian Ohn Daing were among the prominent figures convicted under the law against disrupting polls, which was enacted in July.
They were each handed a seven-year jail term after criticising a film promoting the elections, state media reported.
UN Special Rapporteur Tom Andrews on Sunday called on the international community to reject the election – saying “nothing legitimate” can come of it.
“An election organised by a junta that continues to bomb civilians, jail political leaders and criminalise all forms of dissent is not an election – it is a theatre of the absurd performed at gunpoint,” he said.
The military has been fighting on several fronts, against both armed resistance groups who oppose the coup and ethnic armies that 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 following relentless air strikes enabled by support from China and Russia.
The civil war has killed thousands of people, displaced millions more, destroyed the economy and left a humanitarian vacuum. A devastating earthquake in March and international funding cuts have made the situation far worse.
All of this and the fact that large parts of the country are still under opposition control presents a huge logistical challenge for holding an election.
Voting is set to take place in three phases over the next month in 265 of the country’s 330 townships, with the rest deemed too unstable.
The next rounds of voting are scheduled for 11 and 25 January, with results expected around the end of the month.
There is not expected to be any voting in as much as one half of the country. Even in the townships that are voting, not all constituencies will go to the polls, making it difficult to forecast a possible 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 state or regional levels.
Some 40 parties, including Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League of Democracy, which scored landslide victories in 2015 and 2020, have been banned. Suu Kyi and many of the party’s key leaders have been jailed under charges widely condemned as politically motivated, while others are in exile.
“By splitting the vote into phases, the authorities can adjust tactics if the results in the first phase do not go their way,” Htin Kyaw Aye, a spokesman of the election-monitoring group Spring Sprouts, told the news agency Myanmar Now.
Ral Uk Thang, a resident in the western Chin state, believes civilians “don’t want the election”.
