An Empty Polling Station Lays Bare Myanmar’s Lost Promise
Five years after a military coup, an election billed as a turning point instead underscores how far Myanmar has fallen from a brief era of democratic reform.
Members of the Union Election commission prepare to count ballots during the second phase of Myanmar’s general election in Yangon on Jan. 11.
Photographer: Sai Aung MAIN/AFP/Getty ImagesIn the shadow of Yangon’s gilded Shwedagon Pagoda, Buddhist chants drift through a modest hall repurposed as a polling station. Its gates are open, waiting.
For an election billed by Myanmar’s military rulers as a turning point in a war-ravaged nation, there is little sense of occasion. Nearly five years after a coup toppled an elected government and plunged the country into brutal civil conflict, voters are scarce and expectations are low.