1/9/26, 3:02 PM ‘We are always living in fear’: inside Myanmar’s ‘sham’ election | Myanmar | The Guardian A vendor arranges newspapers reporting on the general election in Yangon. Photograph: Nhac Nguyen/AFP/Getty Images Almost everyone knows of someone who has been snatched on the street. Aung Moe*, a Yangon resident, says his friend disappeared after being pulled into a passing taxi. “[They] dragged him inside the car, put a blindfold on him and they took his phone, and made him call his family and ask for a ransom,” he says. The family were unable to pay the demand of USD$1,200. No one has heard from him since. Mandatory conscription was enacted by the military in 2024, after it lost vast swathes of territory to anti-coup groups. Young men who had enough money to leave, did so. Ei* works in a garment factory in the city, but is from Rakhine state, where there is intense conflict between the military, and opposition groups. She hasn’t seen her family for seven years, and agonises over whether she should have returned home earlier, or if she was right to stay working in Yangon, sending money back. In her home village, people have been killed just going out to fish, she says. “I wish at least for just one week I could escape everything, and not have to think or worry about anything,” Ei Phoo says. “I don’t want to hear bad news any more.” https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jan/02/inside-myanmar-sham-election 4/7