World Tour: Elections in Myanmar

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LINDSAY MAST, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: a World Tour special report on disputed elections in Myanmar, also known as Burma.

Last week, state media confirmed a military-backed party as the winner of national elections.

NICK EICHER, HOST: The widely criticized but expected outcome has raised concerns over what many have said is the ruling military’s attempt to cement its grip on power.

WORLD’s Onize Oduah brings us the story.

ONIZE ODUAH: Twenty-five year old Cyrus abstained from voting in the process that played out in three phases, starting in December. He says others he knows did the same.

CYRUS: Some, my family, they are living in city, but they didn't vote.

Cyrus is an ethnic Karenni ranger with the Christian humanitarian organization Free Burma Rangers. He’s stationed in a camp outside of the military’s control, but says even some family members elsewhere also did not vote.

DAVE EUBANK: Most of Burma can't vote.

Dave Eubank is a former U.S. Army Ranger who founded the Free Burma Rangers.

EUBANK: And then number two, the dictators control it anyway. So it would be like Putin holding an election, or the Chinese government holding election, or any dictator holding election. There’s no meaning to it.

Myanmar’s military seized power after a general election in 2020. That devolved into a civil war as the military clashed with citizens and armed ethnic groups opposing the takeover.

Analysts have said the military is now trying to comply with the country’s 2008 military constitution. It empowers the junta to switch back to constitutional rule after four years of a state of emergency.

Final results released last week confirmed the military-backed Union and Solidarity Party scored the majority of seats in both legislative houses.

But polls only opened in about 21 percent of the country, where the military has control. Opposition forces control nearly half the country.

China has praised the military for successfully completing the vote, a move aimed at securing its investments in the country. But the region’s Association of Southeast Asian Nations, also known as ASEAN, was less supportive.

Theresa Lazaro is the foreign secretary of the Philippines.

THERESA LAZARO: ASEAN does not recognize the Myanmar military junta as of now.

Eubank said the military’s daily attacks on civilians continued despite the election.

EUBANK: Every single day. You know, we have 150 relief teams, and they report, and every single day with no pause about the elections, we have over four and a half million, maybe 5 million displaced. That has not slowed down at all.

Many who have fled the country remain in limbo. Back in November, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security terminated the temporary protected status of nearly 4,000 Myanmar nationals in the United States.

The agency said it is safe for them to return home. It pointed to the plans for what it called free and fair elections, among other signs of progress in governance. But a U.S. federal judge has halted the move ahead of a hearing on Friday.

Since the 2020 coup, authorities have killed more than 7,000 activists and civilians. More than 30,000 others remain behind bars.

Eubank says the war has brought fear and discouragement and even death to his group.

EUBANK: I've been in Burma 32 years. I've never seen heavier fighting than now, never. The scale of it, the Burma army coming with the speed and the force we've never seen.

In the meantime, he has encouraged his rangers to pursue deeper repentance as they fight for justice.

EUBANK: So we pray that the dictators will change. We pray that they would decide to follow Jesus themselves. We pray for reconciliation, and until that happens, we stand with these people, sharing the gospel, giving humanitarian care.

With additional reporting from Joyce Wu, I’m Onize Oduah in Abuja, Nigeria.

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