Sawt Falasteen - Myanmar junta stages election after five years of civil war

Former civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi remains jailed and her hugely popular party dissolved after soldiers ended the nation's decade-long democratic experiment in February 2021.

International monitors have dismissed the phased month-long vote as a rebranding of martial rule, citing a ballot stacked with military allies and a stark crackdown on dissent.

The country of around 50 million is riven by civil war, and the vote will not take place in rebel-held areas.

In junta-controlled territory, the first of three rounds of voting is due from 6:00 am Sunday (2330 GMT Saturday), including in constituencies in the cities of Yangon, Mandalay and the capital Naypyidaw.

"The military are just trying to legalise the power they took by force," one resident of the northern city of Myitkyina told AFP, pledging to boycott the poll.

The run-up has seen none of the feverish public rallies that Suu Kyi could command, with just a smattering of low-key events.

"Almost no one is interested in this election. But some are worried they may face trouble if they abstain," said the Myitkyina resident, 33, speaking anonymously for security reasons.

Junta chief Min Aung Hlaing has not responded to AFP requests for interview.

But his remarks paraphrased in state media promote polls as a chance for reconciliation, while admitting the military "will continue to play a role in the country's political leadership" after results are in.

Under Myanmar's current constitution, 25 percent of parliamentary seats are reserved for the armed forces.

- Suu Kyi sidelined -

The military ruled Myanmar for most of its post-independence history before a 10-year interlude saw a civilian government take the reins in a burst of optimism and reform.

But after Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) party trounced pro-military opponents in 2020 elections, Min Aung Hlaing snatched power in a coup, alleging widespread voter fraud.

Suu Kyi is serving a 27-year sentence for offences ranging from corruption to breaching Covid-19 restrictions, charges rights monitors dismiss as politically motivated.

"I don't think she would consider these elections to be meaningful in any way," her son Kim Aris said from his home in Britain.

The NLD has been dissolved along with most parties that took part in the 2020 vote, when 90 percent of the seats went to organisations that will not appear on Sunday's ballots, according to the Asian Network for Free Elections.

The pro-military Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) is by far the biggest participant, providing more than a fifth of all candidates, it added.

New electronic voting machines will not allow write-in candidates or spoiled ballots.

Meanwhile, the junta is pursuing prosecutions against more than 200 people for violating draconian legislation forbidding "disruption" of the poll, including protest or criticism.

Around 22,000 political prisoners languish in junta jails, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.

But some present the poll as the only recourse for a country deadlocked in conflict.

"I'd like to urge people to come and vote," People's Party leader Ko Ko Gyi told AFP. "There will be some kind of changes after the election."

- Contested vote -

When the military seized power, it swiftly put down pro-democracy protests, and many activists quit the cities to fight as guerrillas alongside ethnic minority armies that have long held sway in Myanmar's fringes.

The junta has waged a pre-vote offensive, clawing back territory and hammering areas beyond its reach with air strikes, but concedes elections cannot happen in around one in seven constituencies.

This month, an air strike on a hospital in the western state of Rakhine killed more than 30 people, according to local aid workers. The junta said the hospital was housing rebels.

"There are many ways to make peace in the country, but they haven't chosen those -- they've chosen to have an election instead," said Zaw Tun, an officer in the pro-democracy People's Defence Force in the northern region of Sagaing.

"We will continue to fight."

There is no official death toll for Myanmar's civil war.

According to non-profit organisation Armed Conflict Location & Event Data (ACLED), which tallies media reports of violence, 90,000 people have been killed on all sides.

Some 3.6 million people are displaced and half the nation is living in poverty, according to the UN.

"I don't think anybody believes those elections will contribute to the solution of the problems of Myanmar," UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in October.

The second round of polling will take place on January 11, while a date for the third and final round has yet to be announced.

N.AbuHussein--SF-PST