Overview
- Polling begins December 28 in junta-held areas, continues January 11 with a third round pending, and excludes wide swathes of rebel-controlled territory.
- The UN rights chief says military authorities are using violence and intimidation to compel voting, while some armed groups threaten people to stay away.
- A July election law criminalizes criticism with penalties up to life imprisonment or death, with at least 229 people charged over alleged attempts to undermine the vote.
- Monitors cite air and ground attacks around the poll period, including a hospital strike in Rakhine that killed more than 30 and a deadly manned paraglider bombing at a festival.
- Beijing has voiced support for the process and brokered rebel truces that strengthened the junta, as Aung San Suu Kyi remains jailed, the NLD is dissolved, and the military retains 25% of parliamentary seats under the 2008 constitution.