The Irrawaddy

 

 

Myanmar’s military government has confirmed that elections scheduled to begin on 28 December will not take place in 65 parliamentary constituencies—nearly 15% of the total—due to ongoing conflict and instability.

 

The announcement, made via the Union Election Commission and broadcast in state media, cited vague concerns about the ability to hold “free and fair elections” in the affected areas. However, many of these constituencies are known battlegrounds where the junta has lost control to ethnic armed groups and pro-democracy militias.

 

Among the excluded zones are Mogok, a rebel-held ruby mining town, and large swathes of western Rakhine state, where the military has faced fierce resistance. These regions have been subject to heavy air strikes and ground offensives since opposition forces launched a coordinated campaign in late 2023.

 

The election, long touted by the junta as a step toward reconciliation, has been widely criticised as a façade to legitimise continued military rule. Key opposition parties, including those linked to ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi, are expected to boycott the vote, while armed groups have vowed to block polling in territories they control.

 

Further signs of dysfunction emerged from last year’s national census, which failed to gather data from 19 million of Myanmar’s 51 million citizens. Officials blamed “significant security constraints” for the shortfall, raising doubts about the credibility and reach of the upcoming vote.

 

Since seizing power in a 2021 coup, the military has faced mounting resistance, both domestically and internationally. Despite recent battlefield gains, the junta’s grip remains tenuous in many regions, casting a long shadow over its electoral ambitions.

 

With nearly one in seven constituencies excluded and millions unaccounted for, Myanmar’s December election risks being a deeply fragmented affair—more symbolic than democratic.

 

 

-2025-09-16

Where do you start, the murdering treasonous Junta should be globally condemned and dealt with but you have countries like China who will do whatever is needed to use Myanmar to its own gain to the detriment & demise of the people & the environment in Myanmar. Xi you are complicit with murdering the Burmese people and destroying their ability to feed themselves so in reality you are equally as evil as the Burmese Junta!! Your citizens are the masterminds of many scam centers, trafficking of drugs, people & human organs so your actions & interference in another country support these atrocities. You should hang your head in shame along with the Junta hierarchy!!!

Any type of election outcome will be null & void because it will be determined by the Junta for the Junta, just another sign of their morals, intelligence & greed!! Scumbag B_______rds!!!

I read that many displaced villagers are building new bamboo houses right next to the Chinese oil/gas pipes that run through Myanmar. This is because it is a location guaranteed not to be bombed by the military junta....

Surprise surprise - a mess since 1947 unfortunately 😞 

58 minutes ago, Sydebolle said:

Surprise surprise - a mess since 1947 unfortunately 😞 

Yep, basically the majority Burman government broke the Panglong agreement to grant autonomy to the ethnic groups (Chin, Shan etc), leading to more than 75 years of fighting....

22 hours ago, simon43 said:

Yep, basically the majority Burman government broke the Panglong agreement to grant autonomy to the ethnic groups (Chin, Shan etc), leading to more than 75 years of fighting....

 

The Panglong agreement dated 12 February 1947 represented hopes for unity, autonomy and equality for the various ethnic groups in (then) Burma. 

The self-determination and democratic rights though were never fully  delivered, leading to ongoing ethnic conflicts and demands for greater individual autonomy to this very day. 

The Panglong agreement and some interesting historic footnotes/comments are attached hereto for the few who might be interested in the subject (5 individual JPG files as PDF cannot be uploaded here).

Among others, General Aung San (father of Aung San Suu Kyi) - who later on got assassinated, signed the agreement on behalf of the Burmese government - the agreement is still a subject of discussion by his daughter Aung San Suu Kyi in her endeavour to achieve lasting peace. 

The difference between 1947 and today is, that the Tadmadaw (Myanmar Army) is much, much stronger and are supported by the red brethren in the Northeast for the latter's hunger for energy, rare earth and an overland access to the Gulf of Bengal. 

Only once the Tadmadaw run out of steam by getting the puppetmasters off the chessboard of conflict, only then it might be possible to focus again on the laudable intention of the Panglong ideas and intentions. 

The army (and the police for that matter too) is to serve the people and are an executive arm of the government. 
The government is put together by the people (voters), hence the people tell the government what to do. 
The government in turn tells the army (external/border protection affairs) and police (internal up keeping of law and order) ... what to do to comply and fulfill the wishes of the voters who put the government into place in the first place. 

In most Southeast Asian countries, democracy works the other way round as the education level of the voters remain extremely poor and down to very basics to survive - hardly enough for the 21st century. 

Myanmar is a pristine example of how the army runs the show. They  compose the government, the (poorly if not uneducated) voters are here to abide, execute and ..... suffer. All those rhetorics from Washington DC, the UN in New York, the ICRC in Geneva, ASEAN and all the other do-gooders and fairy-tale wizards are regretfully nothing but expensive hot air, nobody is taken to account for what they say and nobody calls things by its name for fear to lose their jobs in Washington DC, the UN, the ICRC etc. A vicious circle serving everybody - except the people.  

You need to take the Tadmadaw out of the equation and put them back into their barracks where they belong, stop them barter trading stolen raw material (rare earth, oil, gas, precious stones, timber etc.) against war gear and extremely thick manilla envelopes filled with any currency except Kyat. 

Wishful, not happening, thinking (certainly not any time soon) as the Tadmadaw operates on "take while the taking is good". 

^^^ Sadly, the 'taming' of the Tatmadaw will never happen in my lifetime....