YANGON (Reuters) – As the Myanmar military gears up for the first phase of an election on Sunday (December 28), analysts deemed the move by junta chief Min Aung Hlaing and his brass was to seek foreign legitimacy after being shunned by the international community since a 2021 coup.
"In order to partially end this war and in order to have a sort of political leverage with ethnic groups, and more importantly, NUG (National Unity Government), the resistance group, the main resistance group in Myanmar, it's very important to bring the country back to a normal state," said Lalita Hanwong, a historian at the Faculty of Social Sciences of Kasetsart University, who is also well-known for her studies on Myanmar's history and current affairs.
"I think that this election is a sign that to continue with the civil war, like it has always been in the last four or five years, it's very tough and it's really tiring for the Myanmar military," she added.
Analysts and diplomats said the aim of establishing a stable administration in the Southeast Asian nation is far-fetched since the civil war is still raging, and a military-controlled government with a civilian veneer is unlikely to win many backers overseas.
"I think that the election will not produce anything new in Myanmar whatsoever. And those resistance groups who have always been at the forefront of the protests and resistance against the military junta will continue their struggle," Lalita told Reuters.
Voting will be held in three phases on Sunday, January 11 and January 25, covering a total of 202 townships out of a total of 330. Min Aung Hlaing has previously acknowledged that the election will not be held nationwide, with the military continuing to fight an armed resistance that has strengthened since the coup.
Dates for the counting of votes and the announcement of election results have not yet been declared.
The battle-hardened Tatmadaw has long dominated politics in Myanmar, which won independence from Britain in 1948, with a string of military chiefs running the country with an iron grip.
Min Aung Hlaing joined their ranks in February 2021, when he ousted a civilian government led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi on the unproven allegation of electoral fraud by her party, which had won the preceding years' polls by a landslide.
Six parties are competing nationwide, including the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party that has the largest slate of candidates and is tipped to win the polls, creating conditions for the junta chief to take a civilian role.
"Min Aung Hlaing and the junta members intend to have their election to save themselves from the crimes they've committed. Their election can be assumed as not only fake and fraud, but also, it is a blood-stained scheme. That’s why we don’t accept it," said Nay Phone Latt, the spokesman of the National Unity Government (NUG), the main resistance group in Myanmar.
The United Nations, human rights groups and many Western nations have been vocal in their criticism of the elections that the junta is carrying out with the help of a law that punishes dissent and under which it has charged hundreds of people.
The junta insists that the polls have popular support, denying that they are being conducted with coercion, force or suppression.
"The election is being conducted for the people of Myanmar, not for the international community," junta spokesman Zaw Min Tun told reporters on December 14, according to state-run media.