Myanmar’s military junta began a tightly controlled, month-long general election on Sunday, December 28, billing the vote as a return to democratic normality five years after it seized power in a coup that plunged the country into a brutal civil war.
The ballot, however, has been widely dismissed by opposition figures, rights groups, Western governments and the United Nations as a hollow exercise designed to legitimise continued military rule rather than reflect the will of Myanmar’s people.
Polling is being conducted in three phases through January, beginning Sunday in junta-controlled areas including parts of Yangon, Mandalay and the purpose-built capital Naypyidaw. Authorities have acknowledged that voting will not take place across vast swathes of the country held by rebel forces, effectively excluding millions of people from the process.
“This election is clearly taking place in an environment of violence and repression,” UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said last week, warning that it cannot be considered free or fair.
The pro-military Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) is by far the largest participant in the vote, accounting for more than one-fifth of all candidates, according to the Asian Network for Free Elections (ANFREL). Critics say electoral rules have been tailored to ensure the dominance of large, military-aligned parties.
Former civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD), which won a landslide victory in the last general election in 2020, is not taking part. The party was dissolved by the junta, along with most other political groups that contested the previous vote.
ANFREL says organisations that won around 90 per cent of parliamentary seats in 2020 will not appear on Sunday’s ballots.
Suu Kyi herself remains jailed, serving a combined 27-year sentence on charges that rights groups and foreign governments say are politically motivated. She was detained after the February 2021 coup, when army chief Min Aung Hlaing overturned the election results, alleging massive voter fraud — claims dismissed by independent observers.
“I don’t think she would consider these elections to be meaningful in any way,” her son Kim Aris said from Britain.
Myanmar’s civil war, now in its fourth year, has dramatically reshaped the country’s political landscape. A patchwork of pro-democracy guerrillas and ethnic minority armed groups controls large areas of the country, particularly in the north and west, where polling will not take place.
A military-run census conducted last year admitted that data could not be collected from an estimated 19 million of Myanmar’s roughly 50 million people due to “security constraints”.
Authorities have also cancelled voting in 65 of the 330 seats in the lower house of parliament — nearly one in five — citing insecurity. More than one million Rohingya refugees who fled a military crackdown beginning in 2017 and are now living in exile in Bangladesh will have no say in the process.
Even in areas where polling is taking place, participation appeared thin. Journalists and election workers outnumbered voters at several stations early on Sunday, according to reporters on the ground.
At a downtown Yangon polling station near the Sule Pagoda — once the epicentre of mass pro-democracy protests — only around 100 people voted across two stations in the first hour of operations.
Snaking queues of voters were a hallmark of the 2020 election, which the military later annulled.
The run-up to the vote has been marked by heavy restrictions and a pervasive climate of fear. Public campaigning has been muted, with none of the large rallies that once drew thousands to hear Aung San Suu Kyi speak.
The junta has also introduced draconian legislation criminalising criticism or disruption of the election, with penalties of up to 10 years in prison. More than 200 people are being prosecuted under the law, according to rights groups.
Cases have been brought over private Facebook messages, flash-mob protests scattering anti-election leaflets, and the vandalism of candidate posters.
Social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram and X have been blocked since the coup, further restricting access to information.
“It is impossible for this election to be free and fair,” said Moe Moe Myint, a 40-year-old woman who has spent the past two months fleeing junta air strikes in central Myanmar.
“How can we support a junta-run election when this military has destroyed our lives?” she said from a village in the Mandalay region. “We are homeless, hiding in jungles, and living between life and death.”
The election is overseen by the Union Election Commission (UEC), which ANFREL says functions as an arm of the military rather than an independent body.
The commission’s head, Than Soe, was appointed after Suu Kyi’s government was ousted and is subject to EU travel bans and sanctions for “undermining democracy” in Myanmar.
New electronic voting machines are being used nationwide. The devices do not allow write-in candidates or spoiled ballots — a change election watchdogs say further limits voter choice and transparency.
Seats in parliament will be allocated under a hybrid first-past-the-post and proportional representation system that ANFREL says heavily favours larger parties such as the USDP.
Criteria to register as a nationwide party have also been tightened. Only six of the 57 parties contesting the election qualified to run in multiple regions.
Regardless of the results, a military-drafted constitution guarantees the armed forces sweeping influence. Twenty-five per cent of parliamentary seats are reserved for serving military officers, giving the army an effective veto over constitutional change.
Under the system, the lower house, upper house and military bloc each nominate a vice-president, with the combined parliament selecting the president from among the three.
Despite international condemnation, the junta has pushed ahead, inviting foreign observers to monitor the poll. Few countries have responded.
State media reported on Friday that a small monitoring delegation had arrived from Belarus, a close partner of Myanmar’s generals. Belarus has been ruled since 1994 by President Alexander Lukashenko, who crushed mass pro-democracy protests in 2020.
At a polling station in Yangon’s Kamayut Township, near Aung San Suu Kyi’s vacant lakeside home, 63-year-old Bo Saw cast the first vote.
“The election is very important and will bring the best for the country,” he said. “The first priority should be restoring a safe and peaceful situation.”
Others dismissed international criticism.
“It’s not an important matter,” said Swe Maw, a 45-year-old voter. “There are always people who like and dislike.”
Junta chief Min Aung Hlaing has framed the elections as a path toward national reconciliation and stability, though he has not responded to requests for interview.
Myanmar’s military ruled the country for most of its post-independence history before a decade-long experiment with civilian governance brought limited reforms and renewed international engagement.
That period ended abruptly in 2021 when Min Aung Hlaing seized power after the NLD’s decisive 2020 victory. The coup triggered mass protests, a violent crackdown, and the emergence of armed resistance groups.
According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, around 22,000 political detainees remain in junta jails.
Many former activists have joined the People’s Defence Force and allied ethnic armies, vowing to fight on regardless of the election outcome.
“There are many ways to make peace in the country, but they haven’t chosen those,” said Zaw Tun, an officer with the pro-democracy People’s Defence Force in Sagaing Region. “They’ve chosen to have an election instead. We will continue to fight.”
Results from the first phase of voting are not expected until late January, after the final round scheduled for January 25.
For now, as fighting continues and millions remain excluded, critics say the ballot offers little prospect of ending Myanmar’s war — or restoring the democracy the junta claims it represents.
