Myanmar junta unveils new election details
Myanmar junta military soldiers parade during a ceremony in Naypyidaw on Mar 27, 2024. (Photo: AFP/STR)
YANGON: Myanmar's ruling junta released details of its long-awaited December election on Thursday (Aug 21), saying the first voting phase would cover about a third of the nation's townships - despite the conflict raging around the country.
The military-led government announced this week that polls would be held in phases, starting on Dec 28, pushing the vote as a salve for a war that has consumed the country since the generals seized power in a 2021 coup.
But vast tracts of the country are outside its control, democratic figurehead Aung San Suu Kyi remains jailed, and a UN expert has described the election as a "fraud" to disguise continuing military rule.
The junta has yet to set a full election timetable, but a notice published in state media said the first round of voting will take place in 102 of Myanmar's 330 townships.
They include all townships in the sprawling and sparsely-populated capital Naypyidaw and around a quarter of those covering the commercial capital and largest city Yangon - home to seven million people.
But the notice, printed in the Global New Light of Myanmar, suggested more limited ambitions in areas where the military is battling myriad opponents pledging to block the vote.
Western Rakhine state, which is nearly entirely controlled by local ethnic fighters from the Arakan Army, will see voting in just three of its 17 townships on the first polling day.
Northern Sagaing region - a stronghold of pro-democracy guerillas - will see ballots cast in about a third of its jurisdictions.
The junta has not yet announced the dates of subsequent polling rounds, nor confirmed which townships will be included in them.
Myanmar's last election in 2020 saw Aung San Suu Kyi's party win by a landslide before the military ousted her government, making unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud.
The military has claimed a series of limited territorial gains against its opponents in recent weeks as it attempts to claw back ground ahead of the vote.
Meanwhile, it has introduced prison penalties of up to 10 years for critics or protestors of the poll.
