The nation is holding an election in a electoral process broadly rejected as a farce, with key opposition groups banned, numerous figures jailed and a significant portion of the country unlikely to vote because of an continuing internal conflict.
The ruling junta is holding a staggered election nearly half a decade after it took control in a takeover, which sparked widespread opposition and escalated into a devastating conflict.
Analysts note the junta, with backing from Beijing, is seeking to legitimise and entrench its power as it seeks a way out of the costly stalemate.
"There are no conditions for the practice of the freedoms of free speech, assembly or peaceful protest," UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said.
Over two hundred people have been prosecuted for interfering with or criticising the polls under a recently enacted legislation which imposes harsh penalties, including the possibility of execution.
Film director Mike Tee, performer Kyaw Win Htut and comedian Ohn Daing were among the well-known individuals convicted under the law, which was passed in July. They were each handed a prison sentence of seven years after speaking out against a film endorsing the elections.
Civilians are "facing pressure from all sides," Mr Türk said in a comment, pointing out that resistance forces have issued their own threats urging people to shun the polls.
The military has been engaged on multiple battlefields, against both armed resistance groups who oppose the coup, as well as ethnic armies which have their own militias. It ceded territory of large parts of the country in a string of defeats, but clawed back territory this year after sustained aerial bombardment made possible through support from Beijing and Moscow.
All of this and the fact that large parts of the country are still under rebel administration presents a huge operational hurdle for conducting an election.
Voting is set to take place in three rounds over the next month in two hundred and seventy-four of the country's 330 townships, with the rest deemed not secure enough. Results are expected by late January.
There is unlikely to be any voting in as much as one half of the country. Even in the townships that are voting, some districts will go to the polls, making it challenging to predict a possible turnout.
Six parties, including the junta-supported Union Solidarity and Development Party, are running nominees nationwide, while dozens more parties and independent candidates will compete only at the state or regional levels.
Some 40 parties, including Aung San Suu Kyi's National League of Democracy, which achieved landslide victories in 2015 and 2020, have been dissolved. Suu Kyi and a number of the party's senior figures have been jailed under charges widely condemned as politically motivated, while others are in exile.
"Through dividing the vote into stages, the junta can change their approach if the results in the first phase do not go their way," commented Htin Kyaw Aye, a representative of the election-monitoring group Spring Sprouts.
Nations in the West, including the United Kingdom and the European Parliament, have rejected the vote as a sham, while neighbouring group Asean has urged negotiations to come before any election.
The Myanmar regime has rejected criticism of the polls, maintaining that it aims to "return [the country] to a democracy with multiple parties".
"The election is being held for our nation. It is being held for the people of Myanmar. It is not intended for the outside world," a junta spokesman stated at a briefing last week.
Junta chief Min Aung Hlaing warned earlier this week that those who choose not to participate are turning their back on "progress toward democracy".
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