Myanmar’s dominant pro-military party has claimed a decisive victory in the first phase of the country’s junta-run elections, according to a senior party official, even as democracy advocates and international observers warned the exercise would entrench military rule.
“We won 82 lower house seats in townships which have finished counting, out of the total of 102,” a senior official of the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity as they were not authorised to formally disclose the results.
The official said the party had won all eight townships in the capital Naypyidaw.
The voting on Sunday marked the first phase of a staggered, month-long election process announced by Myanmar’s military rulers, who seized power in a 2021 coup and have pledged that the polls will eventually restore civilian governance. Two more voting phases are scheduled for January 11 and January 25.
At the last general election in 2020, the USDP suffered a heavy defeat at the hands of Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD). The NLD was later dissolved following the coup and did not contest Sunday’s vote. Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, has been detained since the military takeover, which plunged the country into a prolonged civil conflict.
Campaigners, Western diplomats and the United Nations’ human rights chief have criticised the elections, citing a sweeping crackdown on dissent and a candidate list dominated by military-aligned parties. Many analysts describe the USDP as a civilian proxy for the armed forces, noting that former military officers occupy key leadership roles.
Official results have yet to be announced by Myanmar’s Union Election Commission.
Public scepticism over the vote remains high. “My view on the election is clear: I don’t trust it at all,” said Min Khant, a 28-year-old resident of Yangon. “We have been living under a dictatorship. Even if they do hold elections, I don’t think anything good will come of them because they always lie.”
After casting his ballot on Sunday, military chief Min Aung Hlaing said the armed forces could be trusted to transfer power to a civilian-led government following the elections. “We guarantee it to be a free and fair election,” he told reporters in Naypyidaw, adding that the military would not allow its reputation to be questioned.
The military has acknowledged that voting cannot take place in nearly one in five lower house constituencies because of ongoing conflict. Sunday’s polling was conducted in 102 of Myanmar’s 330 townships, the largest share across the three planned phases.
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