Myanmar pro-military party claims huge win in first phase of junta-run poll

NAYPYITAW, Myanmar – Myanmar’s dominant pro-military party has claimed an overwhelming victory in the first phase of the junta-run election after democracy watchdogs warned that the polls would entrench military rule.

The armed forces snatched power in a 2021 coup, but on Dec 28

opened voting in a phased month-long election

they pledge will return power to the people.

“We won 82 Lower House seats in townships which have finished counting, out of the total of 102,” said a senior official of the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP).

The party won all eight townships in the capital Naypyitaw, the official added, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to officially disclose the results.

The massively popular but dissolved party of democratic figurehead Aung San Suu Kyi did not appear on ballots, and she remains jailed since the military putsch that triggered a civil war.

Campaigners, Western diplomats and the United Nations’ rights chief have condemned the vote – citing a stark crackdown on dissent and a candidate list stacked with military allies.

Official results have yet to be posted by Myanmar’s Union Election Commission, and there are two more phases scheduled for Jan 11 and Jan 25.

The military overturned the results of the last polls in 2020 after Ms Suu Kyi’s party, the National League for Democracy, trounced the USDP.

The military and USDP then alleged massive voter fraud, claims that international monitors say were unfounded.

But on Dec 29, military chief Min Aung Hlaing – who has ruled by diktat for the past five years – said the armed forces could be trusted to hand back power to a civilian-led government.

“We

guarantee it to be a free and fair election

,” he told reporters after casting his vote in Naypyitaw.

“It’s organised by the military, we can’t let our name be tarnished.”

The military’s coup triggered a civil war as pro-democracy activists formed guerilla units, fighting alongside ethnic minority armies that have long resisted central rule.

Dec 28’s election was scheduled to take place in 102 of the country’s 330 townships – the largest of the three rounds of voting. But amid the war, the military has acknowledged that elections cannot happen in almost one in five Lower House constituencies. AFP