#military-junta

#military-junta

Myanmar is preparing to start a national election in December at least to the extent that such polls are possible in a country officially ruled by a military junta and partly controlled by rebels after nearly five years of civil war. UN experts have dismissed the coming polls as a "sham," engineered to maintain the generals' grip on power through proxy parties. And yet, the junta seems to be in a hurry to create conditions for voting in as many places as they can.

The vote, which begins on December 28, is being widely viewed as a ploy to legitimise the ruling military government. Campaigning has begun in military-run Myanmar, two months ahead of an election being widely dismissed at home and abroad as a transparent bid to confer legitimacy on the army's 2021 seizure of power. The military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) held events on Tuesday in the capital Naypyitaw and in Yangon, the country's largest city, to launch its campaign.