Myanmar military chief calls for heightened security ahead of election

Myanmar’s military chief has called for increased security for political party members and candidates as a newly formed interim government proceeds with a planned election in December and January that has been dismissed in the West as a sham. 

Min Aung Hlaing, who is also the war-torn country’s acting president, asked authorities to take measures for protecting politicians and voters, while warning of a rise in attacks on civil servants in the run up to the polls, the Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper reported on Wednesday.

“The Senior General highlighted that the election must be held without fail,” the state-run publication said, referring to comments made by Min Aung Hlaing at the first meeting of a new commission formed to hold the polls.

With opposition groups either barred from running or refusing to take part, the planned election has been dismissed by Western governments as a move to entrench the generals’ power and is expected to be dominated by proxies of the military.

Military-backed authorities last year held a nationwide census in an effort to create voter rolls but were only to able to conduct on-ground surveys in 145 out of Myanmar’s 330 townships.

Myanmar’s military this month nominally transferred power to a civilian-led interim administration to conduct the election, four years after Min Aung Hlaing led a coup that unseated an the elected civilian government of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

The takeover triggered widespread protests and eventually sparked a civil war, where an array of established ethnic armies and newly-formed armed groups are battling the well-armed military on multiple frontlines.

In Tuesday’s meeting in the capital Naypyitaw, officials reviewed military operations in preparation of the polls and reinforcing security through the formation of “people’s security” groups, the newspaper said.

A military-led council last month also introduced new electoral laws aimed at improving security, containing punishments ranging from a minimum of three years in prison to the death penalty. REUTERS