1/9/26, 3:02 PM ‘We are always living in fear’: inside Myanmar’s ‘sham’ election | Myanmar | The Guardian “Before the coup, we were rocketing our hopes and dreams,” says Hnin Sandar. “But after the coup, we are doing what we need to survive.” In past elections, people turned out in their droves to vote, the streets awash in red, the colour of Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy. She remains in prison, aged 80, and her party, which won a sweeping victory in 2020, is banned. A young pro-democracy activist, who speaks from exile in Thailand, says he remains confident the resistance will win. But it will take time, he says. The military’s entrenched power goes back decades. “We didn’t think we could solve [the military’s dominance] during this five years.” Young people are prepared to continue resisting, he says, guessing it could take another five or ten years. Activists fear this month’s election, which is happening at a time when the junta, supported by China has regained momentum on the battleground, could give the military greater legitimacy abroad. At polling stations on Sunday, TV screens played a jarringly upbeat tune. “Hey dear friends, so that a colourful future may bloom, let us choose those who will shape tomorrow,” the lyrics went, as a woman on the screen smiled and swayed. A few metres away, police armed with guns watched on. Turnout was 52% on Sunday, according to the junta, compared with about 70% in Myanmar’s 2020 and 2015 elections. In some areas people voted out of fear, anxious they could be conscripted as punishment for not doing so, or prevented from leaving the country. Large areas of the country are completely excluded from the vote because they are gripped by intense fighting. The military has rejected criticism of the election, insisting it will be free and fair. Will the vote make a difference to the country’s economic and political crisis? “It’s 50-50” says one man, aged 23. He says he didn’t feel excited to vote, but it was his duty. Many voters declined to speak, worrying it was too unsafe to do so. Away from the polling stations, a young man pauses to take in the sunset as he makes his way home from work. He was among the protesters who gathered in 2021, he says. Today, doing so is impossible. “The authorities immediately find out and come to arrest them,” he says. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jan/02/inside-myanmar-sham-election 6/7