Without choice

Nearly five years after Myanmar's military seized power, the generals have returned to a familiar ritual: the ballot box.

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But this election, held in phases amid an active civil war, is not an exercise in democratic renewal. It is an attempt to convert control into consent at a moment when the state itself is fractured. The conditions under which the vote is being conducted tell the real story. Large parts of the country are excluded on grounds of "instability," opposition parties have been dissolved, and prominent leaders remain imprisoned or exiled. The National League for Democracy, which won decisive mandates in earlier elections, is absent, its leadership jailed under charges widely seen as political. In such circumstances, the vote cannot serve as a mechanism of representation; it can only function as a managed outcome. The junta's argument is procedural: that phased voting, security arrangements, and participation by registered parties, amount to progress towards a multiparty system. Yet, procedure divorced from political freedom is a hollow substitute. Law