Bombay Durpun - 'Unfair election': young voters absent from Myanmar polls

Legions have left the war-ravaged country since the military seized power five years ago, including many men of conscription age -- up to 35 -- or youngsters seeking better livelihoods away from Myanmar's moribund economy.

And even those still in the country were not particularly eager to take part in the vote, which international rights campaigners have dismissed as a sham.

"Most of the people who go to vote are elderly," said one man in his 20s in the Mandalay area, who asked to remain anonymous for security reasons.

"I don't think anyone wants to get involved in this chaos," he told AFP.

"People probably don't believe in the fairness of this election."

At a polling station near the gilded Sule Pagoda in downtown Yangon, the voters were primarily senior citizens, mothers carrying children and housewives with shopping baskets.

Out of some 1,400 people listed as registered at the site, fewer than 500 had cast their ballots with less than two hours until polls closed, according to a local electoral official.

In the last elections in 2020, turnout rate was around 70 percent.

Sein Yee, a retired rural school teacher, said that "voting is a duty for all citizens."

"It's an opportunity for all citizens to achieve peace in the country," the 74-year-old woman added.

Myanmar was plunged into civil war by the military's 2021 coup, and it instituted conscription two years ago to bolster its ranks as it battles guerrillas as well as ethnic minority armies that have long held sway in the country's fringes.

"I don't think there will be any changes. I think this is for them to change their soldier uniforms into civilian ones and to hold onto their power."

- Coercion -

The junta is touting the vote as a return to democracy.

"I am soon to be 100," said former journalist Sato Nga Nyo, 97, who declined to say who he voted for.

"I am a Myanmar citizen who loves his nationality and his country. I have to show support."

The streets around Sule Pagoda, which was the scene of a violent crackdown on pro-democracy protesters after the coup, were unusually quiet on Sunday.

Only a sound system playing a looped song encouraging the electorate to exercise their democratic right broke the calm, along with the occasional passing vanload of armed police and soldiers.

Anti-regime groups have threatened to target the election.

"Those who have to go to polling stations for voting, you go," said an officer of an anti-coup People's Defence Force group, from Pale township in Sagaing region.

"But go home straight afterwards for your safety."

Some people had been forced to take part, he added: "We have understood people have had guns pointed at them as a type of pressure for voting."

In Yangon many voters declined to identify their preferences, or discuss the turnout, but Wai Phyo Kyaw, a candidate for the junta-allied People's Pioneer Party, shrugged off concerns.

"You should vote for the candidate you like. If you don't, you'll end up with no one you support," he said.

"Some people choose not to vote," he added, "but it may not be good for them".

B.Chakrabarti--BD