Myanmar is going to the polls in a electoral process widely dismissed as a farce, with major political parties dissolved, numerous figures imprisoned and as much as half of the country unable to participate because of an ongoing internal conflict.
The ruling junta is holding a phased ballot nearly half a decade after it seized power in a takeover, which sparked massive protests and escalated into a devastating conflict.
Observers say the junta, with backing from Beijing, is seeking to legitimise and entrench its power as it seeks a way out of the costly deadlock.
"There are no conditions for the practice of the rights of free speech, association or peaceful assembly," the United Nations' top human rights official Volker Türk said.
Over two hundred people have been charged for disrupting or opposing the polls under a new law which carries harsh penalties, including the death penalty.
Director Mike Tee, performer Kyaw Win Htut and comedian Ohn Daing were among the prominent figures convicted under the law, which was passed in July. They were each given a seven-year jail term after criticising a film promoting the elections.
Civilians are "facing pressure from all sides," Mr Türk noted in a comment, pointing out that armed rebel groups have made warnings urging people to shun the polls.
The army has been fighting on multiple battlefields, against both pro-democracy fighters who oppose the coup, as well as ethnic armed organisations which have their own militias. It ceded territory of large parts of the country in a series of major setbacks, but regained territory this year after sustained aerial bombardment enabled by support from China and Russia.
All of this and the fact that significant regions of the country are still under rebel administration presents a massive logistical challenge for conducting an election.
The ballot is set to take place in three rounds over the next month in two hundred and seventy-four of the country's three hundred and thirty townships, with the rest deemed too unstable. Results are expected around the end of January.
There is not expected to be any voting in as much as one half of the country. Even in the townships that are voting, not all constituencies will go to the polls, making it challenging to forecast a possible turnout.
A handful of parties, including the junta-supported Union Solidarity and Development Party, are running nominees nationwide, while another 51 parties and independent candidates will compete only at the state or regional levels.
Approximately forty groups, including Aung San Suu Kyi's National League of Democracy, which scored landslide victories in 2015 and 2020, have been dissolved. Suu Kyi and a number of the party's key leaders have been imprisoned under charges widely condemned as fabricated, while the rest are in hiding abroad.
"Through dividing the vote into phases, the authorities can change their approach if the outcomes in the first phase do not go their way," noted Htin Kyaw Aye, a spokesman of the watchdog group Spring Sprouts.
Nations in the West, including the UK and the EU legislature, have dismissed the vote as a sham, while neighbouring group Asean has called for political dialogue to come before any election.
The Myanmar regime has rejected criticism of the polls, insisting that it aims to "return [the country] to a democracy with multiple parties".
"This vote is being held for our nation. It is being held for the people of this country. It is not being held for the international community," a military representative told a news conference last week.
Military leader Min Aung Hlaing warned earlier this week that those who refuse to vote are turning their back on "the path to democracy".
