From the Balkans to Southeast Asia: High-stakes elections test fragile stabilities across three continents

YANGON/BANGUI/CONAKRY/PRISTINA: Four nations across three continents — Myanmar, Central African Republic, Guinea, and Kosovo — have officially opened polls Sunday in a pivotal day for global democracy and shifting political tides.

While the contexts range from the desperate search for an end to civil war in Southeast Asia to breaking parliamentary deadlocks in the Balkans, each vote carries profound implications for regional stability and the future of civilian rule.

Heavily restricted polls

Myanmar’s ruling junta is touting the exercise as a return to democracy five years after it ousted the last elected government, triggering civil war.

But early voters at a downtown station near the gleaming Sule Pagoda — the site of huge pro-democracy protests after the coup — were outnumbered by journalists and polling staff, a far cry from the snaking queues of voters formed outside polling stations in the last election in 2020.