Myanmar’s military government has introduced a new law that imposes severe penalties for protesting its planned election, with critics potentially facing years in prison for dissent. The law, which took effect on Tuesday, bans “any speech, organising, inciting, protesting or distributing leaflets in order to destroy a part of the electoral process”.
Those convicted of violating the law face three to seven years in prison, with group offenses punishable by five to ten years. More severe penalties include up to 20 years in prison for damaging ballot papers or polling stations, and intimidating or harming voters, candidates, or election workers. If anyone is killed during an attempt to disrupt the election, “everyone involved in the crime faces the death penalty,” the law states.
This move is seen as a ploy to shore up military rule, with opposition groups and international monitors slamming the legislation. Tom Andrews, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, has called on the international community to reject the election plan as “a fraud”.
According to Andrews, the military is “trying to create this mirage of an election exercise that will create a legitimate civilian government”. The election is expected to take place at the end of this year, but analysts predict that anti-coup fighter groups and ethnic armed groups may stage offensives in the run-up to the vote as a sign of their opposition.
The military government seized power in a 2021 coup that prompted a many-sided civil war, and large parts of the country remain outside the military’s control. Some state census workers deployed last year to gather data before the poll faced resistance and security threats.
Data could not be collected from an estimated 19 million of the country’s 51 million people, provisional results said, in part because of “significant security constraints”. The ongoing conflict has led to a dire humanitarian situation, with the junta severely restricting internet and phone services, and arbitrarily arresting activists, journalists, humanitarian workers, lawyers, and religious leaders.
The use of force by the military has been brutal, with peaceful protests met with violence, and many protesters killed or arrested. In 2024, a total of 2,965 peaceful protests were recorded across Myanmar, with 2,314 protests taking place in Sagaing Region. The military’s grip on power has eroded, and it has launched wave after wave of retaliatory air strikes and artillery shelling on civilians and civilian-populated areas, forced thousands of young people into military service, conducted arbitrary arrests and prosecutions, caused mass displacement, and denied access to humanitarians.
The international community has expressed concern over the situation, with the UN Human Rights Office stating that the junta has ramped up violence against civilians to unprecedented levels in 2024. The Committee to Protect Journalists has ranked Myanmar as the world’s second-worst jailer of journalists, while Reporters Without Borders has placed the country among the ten worst nations for press freedom in its 2024 report.