Myanmar junta says voter turnout at 52% in first phase of election

NAYPYITAW, Myanmar – Myanmar’s junta said slightly more than half of eligible voters cast their ballot in the first phase of a three-stage national election at the weekend, a figure that was markedly lower than in the previous two elections.

The election is the first since a 2021 coup and is taking place

during a civil war

. Analysts expect the military-aligned Union Solidarity and Development Party, led by retired generals, to be returned to power.

The United Nations, some Western countries and human rights groups have said the vote is not free, fair or credible, given that anti-junta political parties are out of the running and it is illegal to criticise the polls. 

Junta spokesman Zaw Min Tun told state media that more than six million people, or 52.13 per cent of enrolled voters,

had voted on

Dec 28

across 102 townships

. 

“Even in developed democratic nations, there are situations where voter turnout does not exceed 50 per cent,” the spokesman said, adding that the turnout was a “source of pride”.

Turnout was about 70 per cent in Myanmar’s 2020 and 2015 general elections, according to the US-based non-profit organisation International Foundation for Electoral Systems.

Further rounds of voting will be held on Jan 11 and Jan 25, covering 265 of Myanmar’s 330 townships, although the junta does not have complete control of all those areas.

The junta’s legal framework for the election has no minimum voter turnout requirement, said the Asian Network for Free Elections poll monitoring group.

Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, deposed by the military months after her National League for Democracy won the general election in a landslide win in 2020, remains in detention and the party she led to power has been dissolved. REUTERS