<\/p>\n
Polls in Myanmar have closed after a third and final stage of voting in what are widely viewed as sham elections.<\/p>\n
Many popular parties are banned from standing and voting has not been possible in large areas of the country because of a five-year-long civil war.<\/p>\n
The dominant party backed by the ruling military junta is expected to win a landslide victory.<\/p>\n
The current regime has rejected international criticism of the election, maintaining that it is free and fair.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Around one-fifth of the country’s 330 townships, including the cities of Yangon and Mandalay, voted in the last stage. <\/p>\n
Six parties, including the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), fielded candidates nationwide, while another 51 parties and independent candidates decided to contest state and regional levels.<\/p>\n
Two previous rounds were held on 28 December and 11 January – giving overwhelming victories to the USDP.<\/p>\n
The party won only 6% of parliamentary seats in the last free election in 2020.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
As in previous rounds of this strange, month-long election, voting was orderly and peaceful at the polling station in Nyaungshwe, Shan State, which a BBC team observed. <\/p>\n
Set in a large school, shaded by huge rain trees, there were ample volunteers an officials to guide voters where to go, and how to make their choice using the new, locally-made electronic voting machines. <\/p>\n
You could be forgiven for believing this was a normal democratic exercise, not the sham its critics say it is.<\/p>\n
However polling day was preceded by a campaigning period marked by fear, intimidation and a pervasive sense that little will change after the inevitable victory by the USDP. <\/p>\n
Everywhere the BBC team travelled in southern Shan State, we were followed and closely monitored by dozens of police and military officials, always polite but very persistent. <\/p>\n
It proved nearly impossible to get people to say anything about the vote, so nervous were they of possible repercussions.<\/p>\n
The next steps after final results are announced are laid down in the military-drafted constitution. <\/p>\n
Parliament will meet within the next two months to choose a new president, and everyone expects that to be the coup leader Gen Min Aung Hlaing. <\/p>\n
It will be the same regime with civilian clothes. <\/p>\n
But he will then have to relinquish his command of the armed forces. <\/p>\n
His replacement is certain to be a loyalist, but his hold over the ranks of the military will inevitably be less secure, and it is no secret that many other senior officers do not believe he has made a good job of leading the country. <\/p>\n
With many more voices in politics, there is the possibility of wider debate inside government over which direction Myanmar should now take, and the possibility – distant for now – of the first steps towards ending the civil war.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
The military junta took control of Myanmar in a 2021 coup, ousting an elected civilian government led by Nobel Peace Prize Winner Aung San Suu Kyi.<\/p>\n
She remains in detention and, like many other opposition groups, her National League for Democracy has been formally dissolved.<\/p>\n
The military has been fighting against both armed resistance groups which oppose the coup and ethnic armies that have their own militias. <\/p>\n
It lost control of large parts of the country in a series of major setbacks, but clawed back territory this year enabled by support from China and Russia.<\/p>\n
The civil war has killed thousands of people, displaced millions more, destroyed the economy and left a humanitarian vacuum. <\/p>\n
A devastating earthquake in March and international funding cuts have made the situation far worse.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
#Party #backed #generals #set #landslide #sham #Myanmar #election<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Polls in Myanmar have closed a… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15587,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[242],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15586"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15586"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15586\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}