Myanmar: 'Elections' Where Only One Side Gets to Vote
Deutsche Welle reports that Myanmar's junta is proceeding with the 'second phase' of its military-orchestrated election. This, presumably, is to legitimize their 2021 coup—the one where they arrested democratically elected leaders like Aung San Suu Kyi after her party won a landslide. (Remember when the US and allies championed democracy in Myanmar? Good times.) The DW piece dutifully notes the
junta’s 'lack of opposition,' which is like saying a chef cooks unopposed in an empty kitchen—because he locked everyone else out. We’re told this is Myanmar's path forward, a 'democratic' exercise where the military, fresh off consolidating power through violence, now gets to rubber-stamp its own authority. One might charitably wonder how many coups are required before an electoral process
officially graduates from 'sham' to 'farce.' DW's framing presents it as a step, however flawed, in a political process, rather than the expected self-coronation of an illegally formed government.