She herself does not want to vote. The elections are “fake,” says a 19-year-old student from Yangon decisively, via video link. She says most people she knows feel the same way. But she knows that a few people down her street do want to go. Not out of conviction, she thinks, but because they hope for benefits.
In August, the junta in Myanmar announced that it would hold elections, starting on Sunday. At the announcement, a spokesperson said that Myanmar would return to a multi-party democracy, but virtually no one is taking that seriously. According to a UN observer, the junta is doing a “desperate attempt to create a facade of legitimacy through sham elections.”
The army seized de facto power in Myanmar through a coup in 2021, but not all regions have been able to suppress armed resistance. Although the Election Commission said when it was announced that the elections would take place in all 330 municipalities in Myanmar, this has now been adjusted. The formal statement is that no elections will be held in several dozen municipalities.
The 19-year-old student is not sure whether she can avoid voting. In each district, a government representative has a list on which the details of each household are recorded. “I plan to stay home. But what if they come to us and force us?”
Aung San Suu Kyi
A 27-year-old teacher from another part of Myanmar hears that money is sometimes offered to come and vote, he says in a video call. He also has no intention of casting his vote. “The outcome is certain. The junta determines which parties can participate.” In addition to the regime-affiliated party USDP (Union Solidarity and Development Party), only parties that will not hinder the junta are participating. A quarter of the 664 MPs are not elected at all, but directly appointed by General Min Aung Hliang.
In the last elections in 2020, Aung San Suu Kyi’s party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), was the big winner. But the outcome was set aside by the junta in February 2021 because fraud was alleged to have occurred. Kyi has been locked up ever since. Her party was dissolved by the authorities in 2023.
Since the coup, the population has been brutally repressed. Critics are imprisoned without any form of trial. The junta is bombing schools and hospitals, even when the country was hit by a major earthquake in March. Aid workers were not allowed into areas where the junta is not in control.
At the end of November, the junta released three thousand prisoners from a prison in Yangon. According to Mark Farmaner, director of human rights organization Burma Campaign UK, the regime is trying to give the impression that reform is underway.
Photo Sai Aung MAIN/AFP
Unlike his parents, the teacher lives in a city under government control. His face falls as he talks about them via video link. Their village was bombed last week. “In the middle of the night, the residents had to flee into the woods.” The teacher thinks that the junta wants to make the election area as large as possible. He hears that people in some regions were offered money to come and vote.
In his hometown, the regime tries to convey that everything is under control, he says. Cinemas and shops are open. “This seems intended to show other countries that the coming elections will be calm, orderly and ‘fair’.” But many Myanmarese avoid public places, he says, for fear of being arrested. His social life is therefore very limited. He doesn’t dare visit his parents.
Conscription age
In his daily life the fear of being forced to join the army dominates. On the street the teacher looks around to see if there are any soldiers. Because he is of military age, that is a real fear. “I live close to where I work, so that limits the risk for me.” But most people go to work by moped every day, like his own brother. In the past period, he sometimes did not sleep with his family, but in various other places to reduce the chance of arrest.
The fear of having to fight against one’s own population also preoccupies the 19-year-old student. Women are between the ages of 18 and 18 and their 27th on call, men until age 35. A law requiring all residents to serve in the army for at least two years has been reinstated by the junta since February 2024. Tens of thousands have already been drafted, mostly men. Rumors abound about the men who died because, after brief training, they mainly served as cannon fodder in the front line.
A boy near the student was arrested, “but his parents managed to ransom him.” The district was instructed to register one or two young people for the army every month, she says. That has also been bought off for the time being. “But nowhere is safe.”
National flags hang from lampposts on the streets of Yangon in late December.
Photo Sai Aung MAIN/AFP
There are sometimes protests on the streets against the elections by small groups that suddenly appear and disappear just as quickly. Or she suddenly sees signs with protest slogans against the polls. “If they can’t find the protesters, they just pick up others from the street.” In the state newspaper The Global New Light of Myanmar Last week, the military said they arrested 229 people who allegedly tried to sabotage the election process.
The district was ordered to register one or two young men for the army every month
The student lives in a small world. In protest against the coup, she refuses education that is under regime control. Instead, she is taking online classes to earn an international diploma. The circle of friends from her former school has fallen apart. Some have stopped learning because they have to help their families earn a living. Others have fled abroad. A few went to the military academy.
No observers Asean
The elections will take place in three rounds and last until the end of January. The association of Asian countries Asean has not sent observers for fear that this will be seen as support for the elections from which pro-democracy countries are excluded. China, Belarus and Russia are sending observers. Also Thailand, neighboring country and member of ASEAN, said last week to send one observer on Friday. Not because the elections are “perfect”, according to Foreign Minister Sihasak Phuangketkeow, but to keep the conversation with Myanmar going.
“I used to dream big,” says the student. I wanted to learn as much as possible and then contribute to society. Improve education or the economy.” But almost five years after the coup, her daily life takes place in a tiny world in which she sees her dreams evaporate. “I often feel lost. The future is so unclear.”
She followed the fall of President Assad’s regime in Syria as best she could online. “That gives me some hope for our country.”
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