Myanmar Junta Wraps Election Despite International Concerns

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Myanmar junta completed its polling, which has entered the third phase, in the first general election since the military coup in 2021, according to local media reports as cited by Anadolu.

Reported by Myanmar Radio and Television, the final stage of voting in 63 townships, which started on Sunday morning, was completed on Sunday afternoon.

Myanmar's Acting President, General Min Aung Hlaing, inspected the polling stations in Mandalay.

“It is not my concern that the international community refuses to acknowledge this,” said Min Aung Hlaing in response to international rejection of the election under the military junta, according to the newspaper Irrawaddy.

"This is the path chosen by the people," Min told reporters as quoted by CNA. "The people from Myanmar can support whoever they want to support."

The first phase of voting took place in 102 townships across Myanmar on December 28, while the second phase was held in 100 townships on January 11.

Earlier this month, Major General Zaw Min Htun, the junta's information chief, said that a parliament session would be held in March following the conclusion of the election, and a new government would be inaugurated in April.

This general election will determine the members of the Union Parliament for its lower and upper houses, as well as the regional legislatures. After being sworn in, the members of Parliament will then elect the President of Myanmar who will form a new government.

The dominant pro-military party is predicted to achieve a landslide victory in the election organized by the military junta. According to critics, this will only prolong the military's grip on power.

This Southeast Asian country has a long history of military rule, but the generals stepped back during a decade of civilian-led reforms.

It all came to an end with the military coup in 2021 when democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi was detained, civil war broke out, and the country plunged into a humanitarian crisis.

The third and final phase of the election closed after voting took place in dozens of constituencies nationwide, just a week before the fifth anniversary of the coup.

The military has promised that this election will return power to the people, but with Aung San Suu Kyi sidelined and her hugely popular party disbanded, democracy supporters say the election has been manipulated by the military's allies.

Voting was not held in rebel-held areas, and in areas controlled by the junta, human rights observers say that election preparations were marked by coercion and suppression of dissent.

Teacher Zaw Ko Ko Myint cast his vote at a high school in Mandalay at dawn.

"Although I do not expect much, we want to see a better country," said the 53-year-old man. "I feel relieved after voting, as if I fulfilled my duty."

FABRICATED ELECTION 

Myanmar has a bicameral parliament with a total of 664 seats, consisting of 440 in the lower house and 224 in the upper house.

Forty political parties, including the NLD, were disbanded in 2023. In this election, at least six political parties with nearly 5,000 candidates participated.

At the regional level, there are 57 political parties participating in the election. Meanwhile, the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), backed by the Myanmar military, nominated up to 1,000 candidates in this election.

The USDP—filled with retired officers and described by analysts as a military puppet—won more than 85 percent of the elected seats in the lower house and two-thirds of the seats in the upper house in the first two phases of the election.

"States that endorse the results of these polls will be complicit in the junta's attempt to legitimise military rule through a fabricated vote," said UN human rights expert Tom Andrews in a statement on Friday.

Official results are expected to be announced later this weekend.

The military-drafted constitution also gives the armed forces one-quarter of the seats in both parliamentary chambers, which will vote collectively to elect the president.

Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy defeated the USDP in the last general election in 2020, before the military seized power on February 1, 2021, making baseless allegations of widespread election fraud.

The 80-year-old Nobel Peace laureate remains detained without communication at an undisclosed location on charges deemed politically motivated by human rights observers.

ABSOLUTELY UNSAFE

The military has long presented itself as the sole force protecting a tumultuous Myanmar from division and destruction.

However, the military's coup has plunged the country into an actual civil war, with pro-democracy guerrillas fighting the junta alongside various ethnic minority groups who have long held power on the margins.

Air strikes frequently occur in some areas, while other areas enjoy relative peace, and some zones are blockaded, haunted by the specter of starvation.

There was an annulment of voting in one of the five lower house constituencies, but some frontline locations conducted voting on Sunday.

There are no official figures of casualties in Myanmar's civil war. However, the ACLED monitoring group, which records media reports of violence, estimates that over 90,000 people have died on all sides.

Meanwhile, more than 400 individuals have been pursued for prosecution under harsh new laws that prohibit election "disruption" and punish protests or criticism with up to a decade in prison.

Official figures indicate that the participation rate in the first and second phases of voting was just above 50 percent, compared to around 70 percent in 2020.

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