Stage-managed elections in Myanmar may lead to further violence

The military regime in Myanmar has started laying the groundwork for elections, passing a new party registration law and updating the voter list. But with most of the country engulfed in civil war, and most citizens opposed to the exercise, no regime-run vote can be credible.

In this video, Crisis Group expert Richard Horsey discusses how elections within this context will trigger escalated violence. The regime is using the polls as a pretext for intensifying its counter-insurgency operations and will likely respond to any boycott with repression. Ethnic armed organisations and resistance groups have threatened to disrupt the polls, with some already killing voter list enumerators.

Read the full briefing here.