Can Myanmar Conduct A Free & Fair Election?

As the military rulers of Myanmar (also known as Burma and Brahmadesh) plans for a nationwide election in the next few months, the anti-junta and pro-democracy groups have come out with strong voices that the ‘military junta has no legal or political legitimacy to hold an election’ and it does not have the effective territorial or administrative control over southeast Asian nation to conduct an inclusive polls. Progressive Voice, a participatory, rights-based policy research and advocacy organisation, asserted that ‘with relentless junta attacks causing widespread instability and mass displacement, its planned election would be neither free & fair nor credible.’

Myanmar junta chief Min Aung Hlaing on a number of occasions stated that the next general election will be conducted by the end of this year or the early days of 2026. The batch of current dictators, who grabbed power in Naypyitaw on 01 February 2021 after toppling the democratically elected government of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, continue declaring that they would go for the polls and hand over the power to nearly 55 million Burmese nationals. It is however, assumed that the octogenarian Nobel peace laureate Suu Kyi, who is behind bars for years, and her party National League for Democracy (NLD) will not be allowed to participate in the forthcoming election.

By now, the military rulers have extended the state of emergency for many times. Since the latest military coup, over  6,500 Myanmar locals have been killed by the security forces and more than 3.5 million individuals were displaced, many of whom left for neighbouring countries like Thailand, Bangladesh and India. No less than 22,000 people were detained by the armed forces, where the ousted Myanmar President Win Myint and over 25 journalists are still inside different jails without trials. Realising the ground situation, a United Nations official recently made a serious comment on Myanmar rulers that there cannot be an election when they imprison and torture and execute the opponents’.

More precisely, the  Min Aung Hlaing-led junta today fully controls only half of the townships in Myanmar. According to the National Unity Government (NUG), around 144 out of  330 Myanmar townships are currently under the control of ethnic armed organizations and other people-led resistance forces. Over  75 townships continue to face armed challenges from the people with guns in other hands. Technically, over 75% of Myanmar territory is now controlled by the civilian administrations after being snatched away from the military government by anti-junta armed forces. In western Myanmar, Rakhine State (Arakan) province has virtually gone out of the military, where they effectively control only three townships  (namely Rakhine capital Sittwe, Manaung and parts of Kyaukphyu) out of 17.  Fighters belonging to the Arakan Army had captured all those  townships with their offensive against the Tatmadaw.

Progressive Voice, while terming the junta planned polls as a sham election, asserted that amid escalating attacks on civilians, the junta has continued its relentless efforts to whitewash its atrocities through the promise of the election, which is nothing but a façade. “The junta’s recent arbitrary dissolution of 40 political parties (including the NLD,  which overwhelmingly won in 2015 and 2020 elections) makes its real intention crystal clear. In addition, the illegitimate election authority said that voting will take place in 267 townships—a figure based on the junta’s illegal reconfiguration of the 330 officially recognized townships to artificially increase the number of townships under its control and create a false impression of broad electoral coverage,” said a statement of Progressive Voice adding that the planned election is its ‘strategy to seek and entrench false legitimacy so it can reinforce its tyranny’.

Speaking to this writer from Yangon (formerly Rangoon), Khin Ohmar, chairperson of Progressive Voice stated that the international support for the junta’s sham election (whether direct or indirect)  poses an imminent threat to Myanmar people’s fight for freedom and democracy by entrenching military tyranny and reinforcing the very structure of violence. The international community must unequivocally denounce the junta’s planned election and support the Myanmar people’s efforts to build federal democracy from the ground up, said the Burmese democracy activist adding that any international support of the junta’s sham election plan—whether through direct engagement or in ways that lend false legitimacy—only serves to embolden its brutality and continue the vicious cycle of military violence.

What the Myanmar people urgently need from the global community is genuine solidarity and practical assistance that further strengthen their resilience and resistance to win their revolution and rebuild their communities, asserted Ms Ohmar, adding that imposed solutions aiming to address the current polycrisis with quick fixes will only reinstate, reinforce, and prolong military tyranny, and exacerbate the Myanmar people’s suffering. Urging the world population to stand with the anti-junta Burmese population, the activist expressed hope that genuine and meaningful changes can come from the people of Myanmar working together to end military tyranny for good and establish an inclusive federal democracy and sustainable peace.

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