With a few days to go before the start of a census designed to prepare for future controversial elections, Myanmar's junta is pretending to appeal for political solutions. In a statement published on September 27 in the Global New Light of Myanmar, the country's official newspaper, the State Administration Council (the official name of the military junta that seized power in a coup on February 1, 2021) called on "ethnic armed organizations and PDF's terrorists fighting against the state" to "contact the state to resolve the political issues through party politics or electoral processes" and "discard the armed terrorist way."

The press release explained that the "census is scheduled to take place on October 1 to ensure the accuracy of voter lists for the upcoming multiparty democratic general election. Now is the time to make concerted preparations for this election."

Is this a genuine peace offering, a delaying tactic or an ultimatum in disguise? For the armed resistance, one thing is clear: the first elections – whose date has now been set for 2025 – the junta is proposing to organize since the coup, are a farce. The only credible opposition party, Aung San Suu Kyi's League for Democracy, whose government was overthrown by the army two months after its landslide victory in the November 2020 elections, has been dissolved and banned from political life. Her participation in the elections has always been formally ruled out by the current military government, making its claim to run "democratic and multi-party" elections an illusion. The junta's statement does not offer the slightest concession on this point, nor on that of Suu Kyi's release.

The National Unity Government (NUG), the revolutionary underground government designated as a terrorist group by the military junta, has consistently spoken out against the election and called for a boycott of the census that was supposed to make it possible given that the junta wants to impose a new proportional voting system. In addition, the People's Defense Forces (PDF) – the armed resistance groups – have been trying since 2023 to sabotage the work of the census agents, several of whom have been assassinated.

Nothing at this stage indicates to the NUG, familiar with these calls for negotiations devoid of content, that the regime would be ready to change its tactics. "The military junta has never had any genuine intention of negotiating, and their call is designed to divide the revolutionary forces at a time when they are accumulating losses on the ground. This is not an acknowledgment of their defeat," explained Zaw Kyaw, a spokesperson for the NUG reached on September 27. In his view, the announcement is designed to "mislead the revolutionary forces and the international community." "If they sincerely intend to engage in dialogue, they must declare an immediate ceasefire and cease all violence and atrocities against the Myanmar people," he added.

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