Myanmar votes in sham election under atmosphere of fear and coercion: ‘What will change? Nothing’

As Myanmar goes to the polls on Saturday in the first of three phases in a tightly controlled election, brightly coloured campaign posters loom over families with children still hacking a living from the rubble of buildings destroyed in Mandalay’s devastating earthquake nine months ago.

People here in Mandalay and in the commercial capital Yangon express a mix of anger and resignation over this so-called democratic exercise, in stark contrast to the enthusiasm seen in the votes of 2020 and 2015, when Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy defeated the military’s proxy party and its allies by a landslide.

Bulldozers throw up clouds of dust over streets now packed with traffic and people, as well as the billboards advertising the few parties vetted by the junta and allowed to stand in the polls, the first since the generals ousted Aung San Suu Kyi’s elected government in a coup nearly five years ago.