Trouble-torn Burma is heading for the first general elections since the military coup of February 2021 that ousted a democratically elected government. The seating of a new parliament will mark the re-opening of the bicameral body which was suspended when the military junta seized power. However, several prominent political parties will be barred from the three-phase polling to start on December 28— including Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy, which won the last general elections held in November 2020. The new elections, with only parties approved by the military junta participating, are rejected by the opposition as a “sham.” And there will be no voting in the nearly half of the country now under the control of the armed resistance loyal to the rebel parallel government, CounterVortex correspondent Nava Thakuria speaks to opposition activists in clandestinity, who demand that the world reject the junta’s controlled elections.