Myanmar, a country at war with itself, is going through hustings, but there are no cheers there. The whole exercise is designed by generals to give them a semblance of legitimacy, however flimsy. Myanmar is a broken country today, governed by a military junta with brute force that has alienated vast sections of its citizens and rules with an iron fist, though it is facing a tough time as rebels have grown stronger and its authority has been seriously undermined.

Myanmar’s generals are staging an election under the shadow of guns. It is less a democratic exercise than political theatre — an attempt to cloak continued military rule with a veneer of legitimacy nearly five years after the 2021 coup that toppled Aung San Suu Kyi’s elected government.

With voting cancelled........

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