The military government in Myanmar will conduct a nationwide population and household census in October, according to an announcement by the state media on Monday. This census is hoped to pave the way for a promised election next year amid the heightened conflict across swathes of the country.
The census data that will be collected between October 1-15 will be used to hold a general election next year, according to the junta chief Min Aung Hlaing.
“The census can be used in compilation of correct and accurate voter lists which is a basic need for successfully holding a free and fair multi-party democratic general election,” Min Aung Hlaing said separately in a televised speech on Sunday.
The proposed election has already been mocked as a sham and the results are unlikely to be recognised by the western countries, especially as dozens of parties have been dissolved for not registering to run, including the dominant National League for Democracy (NLD), whose government the junta overthrew.
The 55 million populated country has been in turmoil since February 2021 when the military toppled the popular administration of Nobel laureate and NLD leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, on the grounds of fraud in an election it won two months earlier by a landslide.
After the overthrowing, NLD politicians including Suu Kyi were arrested, while those who fled said the junta’s allegations of fraud over voter lists were false and exaggerated to justify the coup.
