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Posted on 01/11/2026 5:50:26 AM PST by MtnClimber
The U.S. shouldn’t ignore this small Asian nation, because it offers interesting options for addressing some American concerns.
Myanmar, also called Burma, is holding its first election since a military coup in February 2021. Expectations are low, and the vote has already been denounced as a sham. Early reports suggest that the pro-military Union Solidarity and Development Party won 82 of the 102 townships that voted in the first phase of the election on December 28. The nation has a total of 330 townships.
Myanmar has reserves of natural gas as well as rare earth mines. The country’s pariah status makes it difficult to exploit either of these.
Election politics
Six hundred and sixty members of the parliament will be elected in three stages. In theory, voting is mandatory, but I have yet to meet anyone who plans to vote. Like a biblical census, you must go back to your hometown. There were no demonstrations about the election as the military has threatened to shoot protesters.
I went up to my local polling place to talk to the voters and check out the election day excitement. I found only a small room with one clerk. My district won’t be voting until January 11, he told me. The rolling schedule allows security forces to shift their focus from one part of the country to another.
Parties opposed to military rule have been banned, but the voters have interesting choices all the same. The People’s Pioneer Party is led by Health Minister Thet Thet Khine, who is married to a transsexual. The party emphasizes the corruption of both the military and the pro-democracy National League for Democracy.
The NLD won landslide victories in the November 2015 and November 2020 elections. It is led by Nobel Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
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Peter Kauffner is a teacher and writer based in Myanmar.
When we were stationed in Bangkok during the early 60s, my father took me with him on two trips to Rangoon. Both times, I couldn’t wait to get back home to Bangkok.
It will always be Burma to me
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