Myanmar’s junta has committed to holding a general election late next year, with voting to be staggered because of security concerns, said politicians who met the military’s election committee on the weekend.
Junta chief Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing has made promises to hold an election ever since early 2021 when he overthrew a government led by then State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi.
Suu Kyi’s party won a late 2020 election in a landslide but the military complained of election fraud, staged a coup, locked up Suu Kyi and many others and declared a state of emergency.
The junta’s Union Election Commission, or UEC, met political party representatives in the capital, Naypyidaw, on Saturday and urged them to prepare for the polls, said Tin Swe, vice chairman of the Democratic Party, one the parties at the meeting.
“They said they are prepared and that the election is a goal of the State Administration Council,” he told Radio Free Asia, referring to the junta by its official name.
“It must hold the election and has committed to holding it,” he said.
While the UEC had not officially announced the date of the election Tin Swe said he believed, given the discussions the parties held with the election organizer, that it would be held in November.
Military-run media also reported on the meeting and the preparations for the election, without reporting a date.
Radio Free Asia attempted to contact UEC member Khin Maung Oo for details about the plan for the election but he did not return calls by the time of publication.
The junta’s opponents have dismissed the junta’s plans for an election as meaningless.
Suu Kyi, Myanmar’s most popular politician, remains in detention along with many of her party members and supporters. Her National League for Democracy (NLD) party, which swept elections in 2016 and again in 2020, has been disbanded along with many other parties.
“I believe that the international community and the public will strongly oppose the sham election,” said Sithu Maung, spokesperson for a group of NLD politicians elected in the 2020 vote.
“This election is a way of trying to bring about military rule with supposed civilian approval,” Sithu Maung, who lives outside Myanmar, told RFA.
Elections organized by the military would resolve nothing, he said.
“We’ve said all along it’s not practical to solve Myanmar’s problems through elections. What Myanmar needs is not an election, it’s to change the system,” he said.
'Voting in stages'
Parties seen as representing the military and led by retired officers fared poorly in the 2016 and 2020 elections, even in constituencies where many military personnel and their families live.
The junta remains very unpopular, most Myanmar people say, and its forces have lost significant territory this year to various rebel groups fighting to end what they condemn as illegitimate army rule.
The election organizer told the parties on the weekend that voting would have to be staggered because of the security situation, said Myo Set Thway, general secretary of the People’s Pioneer Party.
“The UEC chairman said that it’s impossible to complete the election in one day in terms of security and other conditions. He said that the election will be held in stages,” he said.
“For security, we will do it first in places where the situation is fine and stable,” Myo Set Thway said, citing the UEC. “After that, elections will be held in areas that are moderately stable.”
The junta extended a state of emergency for another six months on July 31, the sixth extension since the 2021 coup. The constitution mandates that elections must be held within six months after a state of emergency is lifted.
The junta is also planning to organize a census this October to prepare for the polls.
Neighbors, including China and India, will be hoping that an election can help to bring stability to resource-rich Myanmar. Thailand, China and India have discussed providing support for the census and the vote.
In January 2023, the UEC introduced an election law stipulating that parties wanting to participate in a general election must have at least 100,000 members and funds of at least 100 million kyats (US$50,000). Parties were required to re-register within 60 days, which many of them, in disarray with members in detention or exile, failed to do so and were disqualified.
Of the 49 parties that have been approved, only nine plan to campaign nationally. The other 40 will compete on a regional or state level.
Scores of parties with suspected ties to rebel groups, including any political or ideological links, have been barred from any election.
Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Kiana Duncan and Mike Firn.