Nevertheless, a few welcome revisions were made to election by-laws, for instance enabling internally displaced people, migrant workers and students to vote more easily in their area of temporary residence, and prohibiting polling stations located inside military compounds. A total of 91 political parties and 5,643 candidates contested the 2020 Myanmar general elections, thus providing Myanmar voters with a wide range of options. However, notoriously discriminatory citizenship laws were used to reject some candidates, and Muslims were disproportionately affected. Furthermore, the dissolution of the United Democratic Party (UDP) just three weeks prior to Election Day disenfranchised advance voters who had already cast their ballots for the party. The decision to hold elections amid an outbreak of COVID-19 was divisive and much criticised, yet the Union Election Commission of Myanmar decided to push through, in part because the electoral calendar offered little room for manoeuvre. Judgment on whether this was the correct choice should be withheld until the impact of electoral processes on the spread of the disease can be properly assessed. However, the resurgence of armed conflicts in several parts of Myanmar led to a greater number of security-related poll cancellations than in 2015, some of which were controversial because of the UEC’s perceived lack of consistency and transparency in deciding which constituencies should be postponed. The situation was especially dire in Rakhine state, where three quarters of all registered voters were disenfranchised by election postponements in nine entire townships and parts of four others. This comes in addition to around 600,000 Rohingya that are denied basic political rights because of Myanmar’s discriminatory citizenship laws. Rakhine was also the starting point of the country’s most recent COVID-19 outbreak, and the entire state has been under a stay-at-home order since August. This obviously affected the opportunities of candidates to campaign, but also the ability of voters to access information in order to make informed choices, as no newspapers are being distributed. Prolonged restrictions on mobile Internet access and the kidnapping of three NLD candidates by the Arakan Army in Toungup township complete the picture of an environment not conducive to democratic elections in Rakhine state. Press and Internet freedom in Myanmar continues to decline. While the media community tries to perform its duties to the best of its abilities, it faces ongoing issues of difficult access to information and sources, blocking of news websites, risks of legal prosecution for journalists who report on sensitive issues, and travel restrictions in place to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus. Initial findings of election coverage monitoring found that focus was primarily on the two major political parties, with less attention given to smaller or ethnic political parties. Online disinformation campaigns were also a problem in the lead-up to the elections. ANFREL recognises the efforts of the UEC to promote voter education through electronic means, as COVID-19 has limited its ability to conduct activities on the ground. However, the level of voter education remains low, especially in rural areas. Voter education material from the UEC also gave little attention to ethnic or linguistic minorities, causing some of these communities to fail to understand the polling process. CSOs partly filled the gap with their own voter education efforts, offering alternatives such as online seminars and small-group meetings, and at the same time organised election observation efforts across the country to support Myanmar’s continuing democratic transition. Women’s participation in the elections increased marginally, with 16% of female candidates (902 out of 5,643) compared to 13% in 2015. Women candidates also continued to face discrimination during the election campaign. We hope that election stakeholders in Myanmar can enhance the participation of women in public affairs. 4