Myanmar’s political prisoners belie the junta’s talk of democratic transition

Myanmar has once again been presented with a false choice. The country’s military junta has staged an election that it claims represents a return to stability and national reconciliation. Election results released so far show that the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party is set for a landslide win after the third and final phase of voting. Turnout was thinner than in past elections: one indication was that only small numbers of overseas Burmese participated in advanced voting, despite reports of intimidation tactics in countries like South Korea. 

Inside Myanmar, resistance took quieter forms. Streets lay empty after a silent strike coinciding with International Human Rights Day on 10 December, a deliberate act to delegitimise the electoral process that started at the end of that month. This act of protest reflected public sentiment more accurately than any ballot. 

Despite the junta’s claims that the election mark a step towards democratic transition in the wake of its 2021 coup d’état, ‘the country’s previously elected leaders – the president, Win Myint, and also the state counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, both from the National League for Democracy (NLD) – remain imprisoned. Major political parties, including the NLD, the Arakan National Party and the Shan Nationalities League for Democracy, have been dissolved or banned, or have refused to participate in a flawed electoral process. 

History has shown that Myanmar’s military, which has exercised power for much of the country’s post-independence history, holds elections only when it expects to win – and cancels them when it does not. In 1990, after the 1988 uprising against military rule, and again in 2012, 2015 and 2020, voters backed the NLD and civilian rule, even when Aung San Suu Kyi was under house arrest. Each time, the military either annulled the result, alleged electoral fraud or otherwise attempted to weaken civilian authority. The 2021 coup, which followed the 2020 election, confirmed that the military can tolerate elections only when they serve its own interests. Rather than heed the will of the people, the junta has intimidated the population and silenced dissent in this latest election.