Myanmar junta captures key town ahead of vote

MYANMAR'S junta said yesterday that its troops had captured a battlefield town in the country’s east, clawing back rebel-contested territory as it prepares to stage a disputed December election.

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Demoso - 105km east of the capital, Naypyidaw - has witnessed intense combat since 2021, when the military deposed the democratic government and sparked a civil war.

The embattled junta plans to hold elections in areas it controls, starting on December 28, and has been pressing a series of counteroffensives to expand its territorial holdings.

The polls are already being criticised by international monitors as a tactic to rebrand the continuing rule of the military, which has kept democratic leader Aung San Suu Kyi jailed since ousting her. State mouthpiece newspaper the