Doubts grow over prospects for junta’s proposed election happening next year

By Admin 04 Sep 2023

DMG Newsroom
4 September 2023, Sittwe

Junta boss Min Aung Hlaing told a cabinet meeting of his regime last week that the election he has promised will only be held only after a national population census is conducted in 2024, leading to speculation that the poll won’t take place until 2025 at the earliest.

Min Aung Hlaing told his ministers to continue to work to conduct the census, saying “only correct voter lists will ensure a fair election,” according to the junta’s propaganda newspapers.

The regime seized power in a coup from Myanmar’s elected National League for Democracy (NLD) government in February 2021, citing fraud in a general election won by the NLD in a landslide just a few months earlier.

Min Aung Hlaing’s promise to hold an election after conducting a national census rings hollow, political observers said.

“Does the current situation in Myanmar allow for a poll? People are having to flee their homes daily due to fighting. Everyday, there are reports about junta troops torching [civilian] houses. We should wait and see if voters are really interested in the poll,” said Arakan National Party (ANP) chairman U Tha Tun Hla.

The regime has repeatedly promised a future free and fair election because it views the poll as a solution to the political crisis it finds itself embroiled in, according to political analyst U Than Soe Naing.

“The regime promises an election at a time of political and economic crisis because it wants to use the poll as a way out of the current crisis. Considering the current situation in Myanmar, it is totally impossible to organise a poll. A poll can’t happen while people are in trouble,” he said.

A total of 63 political parties have applied to register for the juntah’s proposed election. As of August 30, the junta’s election body had approved 36 parties.