Thailand has offered to assist Myanmar’s military regime with its proposed poll and population census, according to junta media.
Thai ambassador Mongkol Visitstump met with the chair of the junta’s election body, Ko Ko, in Naypyitaw on Tuesday to ask how Thailand could help with the planned poll.
Mongkol also called on the junta’s immigration and population minister, Myint Kyaing, and offered to assist in the population census scheduled for October.
Junta boss Min Aung Hlaing says the census will be used to compile voter lists for an election next year.
The poll plan entails Min Aung Hlaing handing power back to the military-dominated National Defense and Security Council (NDSC) when the current state of emergency expires at the end of January. The NDSC would then have six months to organize the poll, as per the framework outlined in the army-drafted 2008 Constitution.
Observers doubt the regime can conduct even the population census, let alone the poll, having lost more than 70 towns along with administrative control over large swathes of the country.
The regime says it will take longer to conduct the census in certain regions. Min Aung Hlaing said the poll would be conducted in stages, with voting rolled out in secure zones first while his regime tried to restore stability in other areas.
Myanmar’s powerful neighbors China and India are assisting the junta with poll preparations.
Thailand, meanwhile, invited representatives from the junta election commission to observe the Thai Senate election in late June.
The poll plan has been condemned by Western countries and domestic opponents of the junta as a fraud aimed at cementing rule by a military that ousted a democratically elected government.
Min Aung Hlaing’s regime took power after the National League for Democracy (NLD) won a landslide victory in the 2020 general election, claiming the vote was fraudulent. Independent election observers rejected that claim. The regime then jailed NLD leaders including Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and former president U Win Myint on fabricated charges.
