Myanmar junta mandates prison sentences for election critics
YANGON : Myanmar's junta said today it has enacted a new law dictating prison sentences for critics or protesters of their planned election, which is being boycotted by opposition groups.
The junta seized power in a 2021 coup, sparking a many-sided civil war, and has touted elections at the end of this year as a path to peace.
Opposition groups – including democratic lawmakers ousted by the military takeover – and international monitors have called the poll a ploy to legitimise the junta's rule.
State newspaper The Global New Light of Myanmar said the 'Law on the Protection of Multiparty Democratic Elections from Obstruction, Disruption and Destruction' was enacted yesterday.
Its 14-page text forbids 'any speech, organising, inciting, protesting or distributing leaflets in order to destroy a part of the electoral process'.
Individuals convicted face between three and seven years behind bars, while offences committed in groups can result in sentences between five and 10 years.
The legislation also outlaws damaging ballot papers and polling stations, as well as the intimidation or harm of voters, candidates and election workers, with a maximum punishment of 20 years in prison.
If anyone is killed during an attempt to disrupt the election 'everyone involved in the crime faces the death penalty', the law says.
Swathes of Myanmar are beyond the control of the junta and some government census workers deployed last year to gather data ahead of 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'.
Analysts have predicted the myriad of anti-coup guerrillas and ethnic armed groups the junta is battling may stage offensives in the run-up to the vote as a sign of their opposition.
A UN expert called on the international community last month to reject the election plan as 'a fraud'.
Tom Andrews, the UN special rapporteur on the rights situation in Myanmar, said the junta is 'trying to create this mirage of an election exercise that will create a legitimate civilian government'.
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