Myanmar's month-long phased election comes amid an exodus of the Rohingya minority, fuelled by an all-out civil war

Myanmar's military portrays its general election as a path to democracy and peace, but the vote offers neither to a million Rohingya exiles, robbed of citizenship rights and evicted from their homeland by force.

"How can you call this an election when the inhabitants are gone and a war is raging?" said 51-year-old Kabir Ahmed in Bangladesh's Kutupalong, the world's largest refugee camp complex.

Heavily restricted polls are due to start Sunday in areas of Myanmar governed by the military, which snatched power in a 2021 coup that triggered civil war.

But for the Rohingya minority, violence began well before that, with a military crackdown in 2017 sending legions of the mostly Muslim group fleeing Myanmar's Rakhine state to neighbouring Muslim-majority Bangladesh.

The month-long election will be the third national poll since they were stripped of their voting rights a decade ago, but comes amid a fresh exodus fuelled by the all-out war.

Ahmed once served as chairman of a village of more than 8,000 Rohingya in Myanmar's Maungdaw township, just over the border from Cox's Bazar in Bangladesh.

Rohingya refugee Kabir Ahmed, a former village chairman in Myanmar, dreams of an election back home

After their eviction, the area is now a "wasteland", he told AFP.

"Who will appear on the ballot?" he asked.

"Who is going to vote?"

- 'Send us back' -

Today 1.17 million Rohingya live crammed in dilapidated camps spread over 8,000 acres in Cox's Bazar.

The majority came in the 2017 crackdown, which is now the subject of a UN genocide court case, with allegations of rampant rape, executions and arson.

Civil war has brought fresh violence, with the Rohingya caught between the warring military and separatist group the Arakan Army, one of the many factions challenging the junta's rule.

Both forces have committed atrocities against the Rohingya, monitors say.

Some 150,000 people fled the persecution to Bangladesh in the 18 months to July, according to UN analysis.

Some 1.17 million Rohingya live crammed in dilapidated camps spread over 8,000 acres in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh

The UN refugee agency said it was the largest surge in arrivals since 2017.

Aged 18, Mohammad Rahim would have been eligible to vote this year -- if he was back home, if his country acknowledged his citizenship, and if polling went ahead despite the war.

"I just want the war to end and for steps to be taken to send us back to Myanmar," said Rahim, the eldest of four siblings who have all grown up in the squalid camps.

The Arakan Army controls all but three of Rakhine's 17 townships, according to conflict monitors, meaning the military's long-promised polls are likely to be extremely limited there.

The military has blockaded the coastal western state, driving a stark hunger and humanitarian crisis.

Rahim still craves a homecoming.

"If I were a citizen, I would negotiate for my rights. I could vote," he said.

"I would have the right to education, vote for whoever I wanted, and work towards a better future."

- Fate 'unchanged' -

Rehana Bibi, a Rohingya refugee, has little hope that Myanmar's election would change the fate of her persecuted group

Successive military and civilian governments in Myanmar have eroded the citizenship of the Rohingya, dubbing them "Bengali" as descendants of immigrants who arrived during British colonial rule.

A 1982 law excluded them from full citizenship -- unlike the other 135 ethnic groups recognised in Myanmar -- and they were issued separate ID cards.

They were then deprived of the right to vote in 2015, just as most other people in Myanmar won more freedoms and military rule was relaxed.

"Will anyone who wins recognise us as citizens?" asked 52-year-old refugee Rehana Bibi.

"We are not a concern for anyone in Myanmar," the mother of six lamented in her tarpaulin-covered hut.

"Whether military-backed candidates or others win, the fate of the Rohingyas will remain unchanged."

In July, for the first time since their influx began eight years ago, Rohingyas held an election for their representatives inside 33 camps in Cox's Bazar.

Aged 18, Mohammad Rahim would have been eligible to vote this year -- if he was back home, and if Myanmar acknowledged his citizenship

"We printed ballot papers and ran awareness programmes on democracy with the hope that someday we would return home and practise it there," said 33-year-old community leader Sayed Ullah.

Ahmed, the exiled village chairman, still dreams of an election back home.

"I was a teacher, but my people wanted me to lead them," he said. "I won three times straight."

"I am sure I would win again if only I got the chance," he said, his face lighting up.

Stateless Rohingya rue Myanmar's election from exile