Myanmar's ruling junta says election will provide path to peace as polls open - but opponents criticise 'sham' vote

Yangon is Myanmar's beating heart. The bustle of busy market stalls and sight of glittering Buddhist monuments are a vision of the country those in power want the world to see.

The ruling military junta has granted the media rare access to some parts of the country in time for the election - a vote it hopes represents a return to normal, restoring civilian rule here for the first time since 2021.

But that notion has been widely criticised.

Tom Andrews, the United Nation's Special Rapporteur on human rights for Myanmar, has dismissed the polls, split into three stages, as "sham elections". Other human rights organisations and governments have also condemned the ballot.

Since seizing power by force nearly five years ago, the junta has imprisoned thousands of its opponents. The most notable of those is Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar’s last democratically elected leader. Her party, the National League For Democracy (NLD), has been dissolved and cannot run in this election. If it could, it would most likely win.

The coup also triggered a civil war that is still ongoing, with the junta locked in battle against a collection of ethnic armed groups and civilian activist forces. That means in large swathes of the country, people will be unable to vote.

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There are multiple options on the ballot, but none represent genuine opposition to the junta.

The Union Solidarity and Development Party, the main military-backed party, is seen as the winner in waiting, because of its close alignment with the junta.

Some of the party's team in Yangon take us out on the campaign trail, determined to show us this election is free and fair.

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'People are scared, that's why they don't speak up'

As we walk through the market stalls in town, USDP candidate San San Htay hands out flyers while telling me she has had encouraging conversations with voters. "Mostly they say they will support me and they tell me what they want me to do for them if I win," she says, before turning her thoughts to the criticism from the UN’s Special Rapporteur.

"This is what he says, and that's his opinion," she tells me, "but we have sovereignty over our nation and we have our own rights. We only need the will of our people, we only need to satisfy the will of our people."

San San Htay is all smiles as she moves through a market, but shortly after the campaign team leaves the mood is cagey. One woman we speak to tells us she knows nothing about the vote. Another is fearful.

"In my neighbourhood nobody talks about the election," says the second woman. "People are scared, that's why they don’t speak up, because of the government."

The junta isn't just waging a war on free speech. On the battlefield, one of the world's longest running civil wars continues to rage, leaving part of this nation smouldering, tens of thousands dead and millions unable to vote.

Footage from earlier in December shows an airstrike by the junta on a hospital in the western state of Rakhine, which killed 33 people. Other videos show civilian houses burning in Western Mogok town in Mandalay, reportedly after military air strikes.

'If the military was fair we wouldn't need to use weapons'

Among those who are resisting the military junta are Kyaw Kyaw and Hla Khin, not their real names, who speak to us anonymously because they are concerned about their safety and the consequences of criticising the regime.

They were both jailed for opposing Myanmar’s ruling military junta as supporters of Ms Suu Kyi's now dissolved NLD.

The two former prisoners believe the ongoing civil war in the country will not end "until democracy is restored".

Hla Khin describes why she feels strongly about the need for an armed resistance, stating: "Even though I was scared in the beginning, we protested peacefully for democracy, we didn’t take up arms. But the junta turned into a violent dictatorship, and our generation felt this was unjust."

"If the military was fair we wouldn’t need to use weapons, but they’re not, so we fight too. That’s why young people are undergoing military training and fighting," she says.

Kyaw Kyaw, who held a political role in the NLD, described the oppressive conditions he says he faced in prison, including being "shackled for 45 days".

"I was beaten during military interrogation and at the entrance of the prison by the prison staff," he says.

"We weren’t allowed to write poetry or read political literature. If they found us doing that, people were locked in solitary confinement and beaten. Some were hospitalised."

As for the future after the election. Both see no end in sight to a civil war which has raged on since the coup.

"If the military junta chief Min Aung Hlaing won’t give up, well young people won’t give up either. Not until democracy is restored," says Hla Khin.

"This situation won’t end until democracy is back. If the conflict gets worse the people will suffer."

'They're trying to intimidate and terrify people'

Commander Tin Oo is one of the soldiers fighting against the junta in central Myanmar, as part of the People's Defence Force, a civilian-led resistance group formed after the coup.

Leaving the frontline to speak to me on a video call, he says the bombing by the junta has intensified in some rebel-held areas in the lead up to the election.

"The junta is intentionally carrying out air attacks on civilians in the area we control, even though it's far away from the frontline," he says before adding. "They’re trying to intimidate and terrify the people. Part of the reason the junta is bombing us is to protect the areas where they will hold elections."

It means the junta is preventing the revolutionary forces from taking over where the elections are happening.

As polling stations open, his assessment of what happens in this splintered nation is bleak.

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"Nothing will change after this sham election," he tells me. "The fighting will carry on."

Despite the opposition and spectre of violence, the junta says this election will provide a path to peace - with votes expected to be counted at the end of January.

Many in Myanmar, and around the world, have a less optimistic view of the future though - with concerns the thin veneer of a civilian government will only serve to strengthen an oppressive regime.

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