Myanmar’s junta-appointed election commission said Monday that voting will begin Dec. 28, setting elections critics call a sham aimed at legitimizing the army’s 2021 coup while conflict continues to rage across much of the country.
The Union Election Commission said in a statement sent to journalists that the elections will be conducted in phases over several days and that a full schedule will be released soon.
A separate statement from the commission, published Saturday in the state-run Myanma Alinn newspaper, said that all 330 townships in the country have been designated as constituencies for the election.
Nearly 60 parties, including the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party, have registered to run, according to the list on the commission’s website.
It is unclear how polling can take place in many areas that are not under the control of the military government but are held instead by pro-democracy resistance fighters or ethnic minority rebels. Much of the country is wracked by civil war.
