Myanmar Spring Chronicle – October 09 Scenes
MoeMaKa, October 10 2022
The 2023 election that will be held under the aegis of the coup military
It was seen in the announcements made after the military coup that the election would be held again according to the 2008 constitution, as well as in the statements made by the chairman of the military council.
The fact that the election was held again after the military coup indicates that the military coup was carried out because the result of the 2020 election was unacceptable and the 2023 election was envisioned to be similar to the 2010 election. The election is aimed at the USDP party, which is made up of generals who have been transformed from the military to become the ruling party. If the military doesn’t get the result they want, they will redo the election and as in 2010, the more parties and politicians who did not participate in the election because of having no trust at all in it, the more they calculated that the USDP would have the upper hand. It is obvious that the military is using USDP and that the upcoming 2023 election is being held in order to legalize the military’s power as an elected lawful government.
The former military government known as SPDC (State Peace and Development Council) drafted a constitution for his administration and started preparation for its transformation in 2007. In 2008, the constitution was approved in a public referendum under conditions of lack of freedom, with more than 90 percent of said-support, and then, the election were held in 2010. Thein Sein government, which Western media called a semi-civilian government, gained power with the election of 2011. Although the NLD did not participate in the election, the ethnic parties and some of the parties founded in 2010 participated in the contest, and the news media, which has already begun to strengthen, recorded that there were voters frauds so that the USDP party could win the election alone. Even though there were such voters frauds, there were no political conflicts related to the election because the public movement was still weak at that time.
2023 is the year of the public’s political activism, and the election will be held against the background of a situation where many armed organizations have emerged and are fighting against the military in various areas.
The election, said to be held next year by the USDP Party and the military council, will certainly be compared to the situation in 2010 in their exspection. However, the external situation is not like in 2010, but can be compared to the elections held in 1949-50 amidst the flames of the country’s civil war. Under the condition that the country’s territories are not well controlled, when many armed organizations are waging a guerrilla war in both rural and urban areas, the election to be held may be one of the bloodiest elections in the history of Myanmar.
If it is actually held next year, the election may be contested by some other political parties other than the NLD and some ethnic parties.
It is certain that the USDP party, controlled by the support of the military, will win in various ways so that other competing parties do not win a proportion in a region or in the whole country.
This election will be nothing more than a superficial transformation of the military’s politics, but just an event aimed at protecting the military’s interests and military leaders’ interests in controlling power and economic opportunities.