Arakan News Agency
The absence of Myanmar’s isolated leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, since the 2021 coup continues to cast a shadow over the elections organized by Myanmar’s military council, which are being promoted as a return to democracy. Many observers, however, argue that her exclusion signals that the elections will neither be free nor fair.
Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate, was removed from power and placed in full military detention after the Myanmar army annulled the 2020 elections, in which her party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), won a landslide victory. The army then dissolved the party and kept its leader out of public view.
Her supporters say that her absence from the ballot is a clear indictment of the elections scheduled to begin next Sunday, which the ruling military council intends to use to override the results of the 2020 vote.
The octogenarian leader, born on June 19, 1945, and known in Myanmar as “The Lady”, is expected to remain behind bars while her jailers conduct the elections. Her international reputation has been severely tarnished due to her government’s handling of the Rohingya crisis.
Suu Kyi’s life carries a striking paradox: she has spent nearly twenty years in military detention, yet she is the daughter of Aung San, the founder of Myanmar’s armed forces, who fought against both British and Japanese colonial powers in pursuit of the country’s independence.
In March, Myanmar’s military council announced that the general elections planned for December and January would be held in four phases, marking the first nationwide vote since the army seized power in February 2021 following a series of previous pledges to hold elections.
The general elections include choosing the parliament, or Pyidaungsu Hluttaw, which consists of two chambers: the House of Representatives (Pyithu Hluttaw), elected from various constituencies, and the House of Nationalities (Amyotha Hluttaw), elected from the states and regions. According to the 2008 constitution, the military appoints 25% of the members in both chambers.
After the parliamentary elections, the president is selected from three candidates. The president then forms the government, while the military retains control over the key ministries of Defense, Home Affairs, and Border Affairs, as well as the power to veto constitutional amendments thanks to its 25% share of parliamentary seats.
