The military-proxy Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) won three seats up for grabs in the Karen State capital Hpa-An, as well as in Myawaddy and Thandaunggyi townships for the Pyithu Hluttaw, or lower house parliament, during the first phase of voting on Dec. 28.
“We have to accept the results whether we like it or not,” Mahn Aung Pyi Soe, the Karen National Democratic Party (KNDP) chairperson, told DVB. The KNDP was established in 2017 but it has yet to win any seats in parliament.
Sources from Union Election Commission (UEC) polling stations told DVB that the USDP also won two seats during advanced voting Dec. 18-27 in Hpa-An and Myawaddy, located 82 miles (132 km) east of Hpa-An.
“The Karen parties have little chance of winning if they compete independently and don’t work together,” a political analyst in Myanmar told DVB on the condition of anonymity.
The Karen Information Center (KIC) reported that the USDP won the seat for Thandaunggyi, located 245 miles (394 km) north of Hpa-An, due to the fact that this is where the Bayintnaung (Army) Combat Training School is located.
Some candidates in Karen State told DVB on the condition of anonymity that up to 40 percent of all registered voters faced pressure from regime administrators to vote in Hpa-An and Myawaddy.
Candidates from the USDP, the KNDP, the PSDP, the Shan Nationalities Democratic Party (White Tiger Party), the Pa-O National Organisation Party, the National Unity Party (NUP) and People’s Pioneer Party (PPP) fielded candidates in Karen State on Dec. 28.
The USDP claimed victory over the Arakan Front Party (AFP) and the Rakhine Nationalities Party in the Arakan State capital Sittwe, as well as Kyaukphyu Township, located 317 miles (510 km) south of Sittwe, on Dec. 28.
Nine civilians were injured by an attack on the USDP office and two other locations, including a polling station, in Myawaddy on Dec. 27 – one day before voting began.
The second and final phases of the regime elections will be held in Hpapun, Hlaingbwe, Kawkareik and Kyainseikgyi townships on Jan. 11 and Jan. 25.
Karen State has a total of seven townships with polls to be held in all of them. Voting has been completed in 102 townships across the country so far, according to the UEC.
The UEC added that polls will not be held in 65 townships nationwide due to ongoing conflict, while 16 townships will have polling stations in urban areas only.
Only 131 of Myanmar’s 330 townships will hold elections in full and 118 will do so only in designated areas, according to DVB data.
The Karen National Union (KNU) and the Arakan Army (AA), two of Myanmar’s most powerful ethnic armed groups in Karen and Arakan states, have rejected the regime elections.
