Myanmar elections 'likely to be bloodiest in history' as Aung San Suu Kyi's party dissolved

Myanmar’s junta has dissolved Aung San Suu Kyi’s political party ahead of general elections that analysts have warned could be the "bloodiest" in the country's history.

The National League for Democracy was disqualified by a military-appointed election commission on Tuesday along with 39 other parties because it failed to register on time, state television MRTV reported.

The date of the poll has yet to be confirmed but may be held in July. However, the NLD, which won the last general election by a landslide in 2020, a few months before a deadly military coup in February 2021, has already denounced the upcoming vote as a sham.

Ms Suu Kyi, 77, who has been ß after being convicted on multiple charges her supporters say are false and politically motivated.

The junta’s crackdown on all opposition to its rule has stoked armed insurgencies across large swathes of the country, killed close to 3,200 civilians and forced nearly 1.2 million from their homes through a brutal military campaign that has seen villages razed in air and ground assaults.

Rights groups warn the elections will not be free or fair in a country that has shut down independent media outlets and blocked opponents from standing, and fear the military’s atrocities will intensify as it seeks to entrench its power.

Elections would trigger escalated violence as the regime used polls as a pretext for intensifying its counter-insurgency operation and responded to any boycott with further repression, said the Brussels-based International Crisis Group in a new report this week.

It cautioned that resistance groups and ethnic armed organisations may also attack electoral targets, and urged the National Unity Government, formed by exiled politicians and opponents of the military, to help promote peace.

“The Myanmar regime is preparing for national elections that, if imposed by force, are likely to be the bloodiest in the country’s recent history,” said Richard Horsey, Crisis Group's Senior Adviser on Myanmar, citing widespread opposition to any attempts to legitimise the military’s political control.

“To prevent this escalation, western and regional actors must send a concerted message that polls are illegitimate, and withhold electoral support; while the parallel National Unity Government should unambiguously oppose resistance attacks on electoral targets.”