Election day thread: Myanmar is heading to the polls today. While the vote count should go more quickly and smoothly than in the US, something to watch is the distrust in the legitimacy of the process, organic and manufactured.

Some factors contributing to this include
(1) the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic (Myanmar hovers around 1,000 official new cases everyday at a 7% positivity rate)
(2) ongoing armed conflict in multiple regions of the country
(3) an internet shutdown in parts of Rakhine and Chin State

(4) the election being cancelled in various townships under seemingly unevenly enforced rationale
(5) the disinfranchisement of over a million people, including the Rohingya and migrant workers of all ethnic backgrounds

(6) the Union Election Commission being appointed by the ruling party
(7) parties messaging being censored when they appear on state TV (one of the main platforms to get their messaging out to a broad audience during COVID restrictions)

And that's all before we even start talking about the coordinated disinformation campaigns that are happening on Facebook at the moment and the recent signals from Min Aung Hlaing questioning the legitimacy of the outcome of the election.

On top of the rising death counts from the pandemic and calls from many political parties to delay the election, there has also been a number of concerning incidents

Myanmar has seen 1 person killed in clashes between supporters of the ruling party and their main opposition in Sagaing State, 3 candidates kidnapped by an ethnic armed organization in Rakhine State, and 1 bomb go of at an election commission office in Bago region