Myanmar junta announces census for promised 2025 election
A nationwide population and household census will be conducted by Myanmar’s military government in October, state media said on Monday, paving the way for a promised election next year amid raging conflict across many parts of the country. The census data collected on Oct. 1-15 will be used to hold a general election next year, junta chief Min Aung Hlaing told a meeting on Sunday, state media reported.
Myanmar’s military government will conduct a nationwide population and household census in October, state media said on Monday, paving the way for a promised election next year amid raging conflict across swathes of the country.
The census data collected between Oct. 1 and 15 will be used to hold a general election next year, junta Chief Min Aung Hlaing told a meeting on Sunday, state media reported.
“The census can be used in compilation of correct and accurate voter lists which is a basic need for successfully holding a free and fair multiparty democratic general election,” Min Aung Hlaing said separately in a televised speech on Sunday.
The proposed election has already been widely derided as a sham and the outcome is unlikely to be recognized by western countries, with dozens of parties disbanded for not registering to run, including the dominant National League for Democracy (NLD), whose government the junta toppled.
The country of 55 million people has been in turmoil since February 2021 when the military ousted the popular administration of Nobel laureate and NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi, citing fraud in an election it won two months earlier by a landslide.
Many NLD politicians including Suu Kyi were arrested, while those who fled said the junta’s allegations of fraud over voter lists were baseless and trumped-up to justify the coup.
Loss of control
The coup sparked widespread protests that were met with a brutal crackdown that transformed the demonstrations into an armed resistance movement. It has since combined with many established ethnic minority armies to become the most significant challenge to the military in decades.
The military government in July said 27 of the parties that have registered for the election have denounced the rebellion. The junta does not have effective control of Myanmar, having lost complete authority over townships covering 86 percent of the country’s territory that houses 67 percent of the population, the special advisory council for Myanmar said in a May report.
Earlier this year, thousands of young people also fled abroad after the junta’s call for conscription to replenish its weakened forces. Last month, Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi promised technological aid for the census-taking process for the “all-inclusive election” at a meeting with Min Aung Hlaing.
