Myanmar holds census amid conflict

Myanmar’s military government on Tuesday began conducting a national census to prepare for a general election it hopes to hold next year, amid a conflict with opposition forces across the country that has killed thousands and displaced millions since the 2021 military coup.
The opposition forces, comprising the self-declared, pro-democracy National Unity Government, its armed wing and ethnic armed organisations, have rejected the planned election as a sham, urging citizens not to participate in the census, which they claim will help the military identify those who resist its rule.
Many of the country’s major parties including the National League for Democracy (NLD), associated with jailed former state counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, were dissolved last year on various technical grounds.
Junta chief Min Aung Hlaing, in a televised speech on Sept 1, said the census would be used in “compilation of correct and accurate voter lists”, which he called essential for successfully holding the general election.
The military coup on Feb 1, 2021 ousted the democratically elected government led by Aung San Suu Kyi, alleging irregularities in the 2020 election that the NLD won in a landslide.
According to the think tank ISP-Myanmar, as of June this year, over 14,000 clashes had occurred between the military and the opposition force across 70% of the country’s 330 townships since the coup. The United Nations estimates over 3.4 million people have been displaced.
In the past three years and nine months, more than 5,700 coup opponents have been killed, with over 27,400 arrested and nearly 21,000 still being detained, according to the activist group Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, based in neighbouring Thailand.
The state-run Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper has reported the census will involve over 40,000 enumerators collecting data from across the country. Preliminary results are expected by the end of this year.
The last census was conducted in 2014.