Myanmar junta fails in bid to force high turnout for sham elections
Military-backed party claims victory in first phase of widely discredited three-part general election, with turnout down by some 18%
Myanmar’s military-appointed election body has begun announcing the winners of the first phase of its three-part general election, saying that a military-backed party has won the majority of seats, as widely expected.
Critics of the current system say that the election is designed to add a facade of legitimacy to the status quo. They say the polls are neither free nor fair because of the exclusion of major parties and government repression of dissenters. Opposition groups have called for a boycott by voters.
The military government said on Wednesday that more than 6 million people – about 52 per cent of the more than 11 million eligible voters in the first phase of elections held on 28 December – cast ballots, calling the turnout a decisive success.
Yet that falls well short of the turnout of about 70 per cent in general elections in 2020 and 2015, according to the US-based non-profit International Foundation for Electoral Systems. The junta had gone to great lengths to force the Burmese public to head to the ballot box this time round.
The Union Election Commission, or UEC, announced in the state-run Myanma Alinn newspaper on Saturday that the Union Solidarity and Development Party, or USDP, won 38 seats in the 330-seat Pyithu Hluttaw lower house, though many seats from the election held on 28 December have yet to be declared.
A separate announcement named the USDP’s leader, Khin Yi, as the winning representative from his constituency in the capital, Naypyidaw. He is a former general and police chief, widely regarded as a close ally of the military ruler, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing. He was said to have won 49,006 of the 68,681 votes cast.
The Shan Nationalities Democratic Party and the Mon Unity Party got one seat each, according to the UEC statement.
Saturday’s announcement was still a partial result, but the USDP’s leaders were convinced of success for the first phase.
A senior official of the USDP told The Associated Press that the party has won 88 seats of the total 102 contested in the first phase.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to release information, said the party ran unopposed in 29 constituencies, facing no challengers or rivals.
Myanmar has a two-house national legislature, totalling 664 seats. The party with a combined parliamentary majority can select the new president, who can name a cabinet and form a new government. The military automatically receives 25 per cent of seats in each house under the constitution.
The USDP official said the party also won 85 per cent of contested seats in regional legislatures, though complete results will only be known after the second or third phases.
Voting is taking place in three phases due to ongoing armed conflicts, with the first round held on 28 December in 102 townships, nearly a third of Myanmar’s 330 townships. The remaining phases will take place on 11 January and 25 January, but 65 townships won’t participate because of the fighting.
While more than 4,800 candidates from 57 parties are competing for seats in national and regional legislatures, only six parties are competing nationwide with the possibility of gaining political clout in parliament. The USDP is by far the strongest contender.
Military rule began when soldiers ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021. It blocked her National League for Democracy party from serving a second term despite winning a landslide victory in the 2020 election.
The NLD was dissolved in 2023, along with 39 other parties, after refusing to officially register under the new military rules.
The takeover triggered widespread popular opposition that has grown into a civil war.
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