The long-suffering people of Myanmar went to the polls on 28 December in the first of a three-phased election. So why are they being called sham elections, and how should the world community view the outcome?
The people of Myanmar go to the polls
It was reported from Mandalay, on 27 December that while many of the people of Myanmar would go to the polls the following day “in the first of three phases in a tightly-controlled election brightly coloured campaign posters loom over families with children still hacking a living from the rubble of buildings destroyed in Mandalay’s devastating earthquake nine months ago.”
It was noted that the general public both in Mandalay and in the commercial capital Yangon demonstrated a mix of resignation and anger over this supposed exercise in democracy. This was compared to the “enthusiasm seen in the votes of 2020 and 2015, when Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy defeated the military’s proxy party and its allies by a landslide.”
This sense of resignation was summed up well in a comment by a member of the public:
“I’ll go and vote because I have to. The system is electronic for the first time and it’s not even possible to leave a blank. I don’t even know the names of the people running or their parties.”
In what way are they sham elections?
It has been argued that the ruling military junta are hoping that the election will help to stabilise Myanmar and help end the junta’s international diplomatic isolation following the coup in 2021. The country’s subsequent ethnic minority military challenges to the junta, have seen the regime lose control of large parts of the country, especially near to the northern and eastern borders. Indeed, in many parts of the country there is no sign that an election is even taking place.
Since the coup and the uprisings in ethnic minority areas, including those of the Karen, Shan and Kachin, the military has thrown tens of thousands in jail, indiscriminately bombed civilians, and left millions more displaced. Furthermore, it is noted that, “aid agencies say more than 11 million people are facing food insecurity amid the backdrop of a military trying to claw back large swaths of territory captured by the opposition since the coup.”
All this left United Nations Secretary General António Guterres at a summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Malaysia in late October asking:
“Is there anyone who believes that there will be free and fair elections in Myanmar? … It is quite obvious that in the present state of conflict and taking into account the records of human rights of the military junta … that the conditions for free and fair elections are not there.”
To ensure the elections go its way, the military has introduced a new law that bans what it calls ‘interference’ in the election process. This is of course a very disingenuous phrase.
Neither free, fair or inclusive elections
The human rights NGO Human Rights Watch said on 16 November that foreign governments should not accept the planned elections to be held by the regime, as they will be neither free, fair, or inclusive. They also noted that following the military coup in February 2021, the rule of law and the country’s nascent democratic systems had been dismantled by the regime, which had recently ramped up repression and violence ahead of the elections.
The first two parts of the multi-stage elections are taking place on 28 December and 11 January, but while they will involve up to 57 parties, they are not going to be multi-party democratic elections in any normal sense, and there will be no serious opposition to the junta. Indeed, the military regime is said to have jailed as many as 30,000 political prisoners and banned dozens of political parties just to make sure that there isn’t any serious opposition.
Those arrested include almost 100 people kept in custody under a draconian election law passed in July. The elections will not be held in all townships, and this has even been acknowledged by Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, the leader of the military regime. This is because of the widespread conflict taking place in Myanmar, which has included numerous war crimes committed by the regime’s forces.
It has also been argued that there will be many young people missing from those who vote in the elections, as many have fled the country since the 2021 coup, especially as they can be conscripted into the widely reviled military up to the age of 35. Meanwhile many of those who remain are said to be unenthusiastic about taking part in such a sham election.
Public reaction to the elections
As mentioned above the public in Myanmar are not happy about the sham elections taking place. According to the BBC, one woman in Mandalay commented: “We will vote, but not in our hearts.”
Another woman said: “This election is a lie. Everyone is afraid. Everyone has lost their humanity and their freedom. So many people have died, been tortured or fled to other countries. If the military keeps running the country, how can things change?”
She also said that she would not vote, even while she knew that such a decision carried risks. The BBC also noted that a new law had been brought in last July, which criminalises “any speech, organising, inciting, protesting, or distributing leaflets in order to destroy a part of the electoral process.”
Earlier in December Tayzar San was among the first to be charged under this new law. He is a doctor and one of the first to organise a protest against the 2021 coup, and was charged after he distributed leaflets calling for the election to be boycotted. A reward for information leading to his arrest has been offered by the regime.
The role of China
The election has also thrown fresh light on the role of neighbouring China in helping to maintain the military regime in Myanmar. It has been noted that China supports the elections as the best way back to stability in the country.
Jason Tower, senior expert at the Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime who is focused on Myanmar has argued: “This is really all China playing a role in tilting things in favour of the military regime.” The Beijing Border closures in the north of Myanmar are said to have been used by China to cause problems for the powerful ethnic armed groups in that part of Myanmar, which has led them to hand back territory to the military and agree to ceasefires. China has also enabled the Myanmar regime to have weapons and has given the regime diplomatic support.
Tower added: “The newer drone technologies [introduced to the military] that’s related to China, the pressure on ethnic armed organisations, reducing the amount of resistance that the junta was facing in the northern part of the country, that’s on China.”
Sham elections
These are strange elections. They seem an attempt give a veneer of democratic legitimacy to a regime which may have no intention of governing in a democratic manner. With the support of neighbouring China, which wants stability in the region, the military junta in Myanmar is trying to achieve some stability in a country whose people they have threatened for years and whose treasure they have stolen.
Mark Farmaner of Burma Campaign UK said:
“The Burmese military likes elections almost as much as it likes coups. For the Burmese military, elections are an opportunity to rebrand, renew, and try to convince the people of Burma and the international community that reforms are finally happening. If the international community goes along with it like they did after the 2010 elections, they risk enabling military rule and human rights violations for decades to come.”
To learn more about the work of Burma Campaign UK and how you can help the people of Myanmar, please see here.
