Overshadowed by civil war and doubts about the credibility of the polls, voters in Myanmar were casting their ballots in a general election starting on Sunday, the first since a military coup toppled the last civilian government in 2021.
The junta that has since ruled Myanmar says the vote is a chance for a fresh start politically and economically for the impoverished Southeast Asian nation.
But the election has been derided by critics – including the United Nations, some Western countries and human rights groups – as an exercise that is not free, fair or credible, with anti-junta political parties not competing.
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Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, deposed by the military months after her National League for Democracy won the last general election by a landslide in 2020, remains in detention and the political party she led to power has been dissolved.
Mass protests followed the removal of Suu Kyi’s party, only to be violently suppressed by the military. Many protesters then took up arms against the junta in what became a nationwide rebellion.
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In this election, the military-aligned Union Solidarity and Development Party, led by retired generals and fielding one-fifth of all candidates against severely diminished competition, is set to return to power, said Lalita Hanwong, a lecturer and Myanmar expert at Thailand’s Kasetsart University.