Junta chief Min Aung Hlaing and other commanders were among the first to be surveyed on Tuesday. The census is scheduled to go on until October 15. The survey includes questions about family members living away from home, which critics say is a way for the junta to identify who has joined armed groups or fled the country to avoid conscription.

Myanmar’s military government has begun a census it says will be used to compile voter lists for an election promised for next year even though much of the country is engulfed in a civil war

Census takers guarded by police and soldiers took to the streets of Myanmar on Wednesday for a national survey that anti-junta groups have urged people to boycott. Teams of enumerators accompanied by soldiers and armed police went door to door in Yangon to fill in the 68-question survey.