Voting in phase two of Myanmar elections complete
A second round of voting in the military-run 2025-26 elections was held at polling stations in 100 out of Burma’s 330 townships on Sunday, according to the Union Election Commission (UEC). Residents told DVB that security was heightened as regime leader Senior General Min Aung Hlaing inspected polling stations to monitor phase two of the elections in Yangon’s Insein, Hlaing and Latha townships on Jan. 11.
Residents of Kawhmu Township, the parliamentary seat held by Aung San Suu Kyi since 2012 located 36 miles (57 km) south of Yangon, told DVB on the condition of anonymity that they felt pressured to vote. “What is happening today in Kawmhu and other National League for Democracy strongholds is not democracy. It is an attempt to rewrite the people’s will through force and fear,” Kim Aris, Aung San Suu Kyi’s son, told DVB.
Over 1.5 million eligible voters cast their ballots in 16 townships located in Yangon Region on Jan. 11. The military-proxy Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) won 88 out of 96 seats in the Pyithu Hluttaw, or lower house of parliament, and 21 out of 31 seats in the Amyotha Hluttaw, or upper house, in the first round. A third and final phase of voting is scheduled to take place in 63 townships on Jan. 25.
People’s Party candidate sentenced to one year in prison
A member of the People’s Party told DVB that its candidate Lwin Myint was convicted by the regime-controlled Thingangyun Township court in Yangon Region for violating Section 58 (C) of the Pyithu Hluttaw Election Law and sentenced by the court to one year in prison with hard labor on Jan. 8.
“Sentencing was delayed until after the first phase of voting was completed as they feared it could disturb the election results,” a party member told DVB on the condition of anonymity. Lwin Myint was the People Party’s candidate for Yangon’s Thingangyun Township in the military-run elections. The USDP candidate Than Than Aye won the parliamentary seat on Dec. 28, according to the UEC.
Lwin Myint was charged by the UEC under the Pyithu Hluttaw Election Law on Dec. 18, after sharing an election campaign video to social media on Nov. 12. Lwin Myint was arrested by the Military Security Affairs Corps on Dec. 17, but released on bail. The law sets a maximum punishment of one-year in prison, or a fine of 100,000 MMK ($24.7 USD), or both.
Hearings begin into Rohingya genocide case at ICJ
A delegation led by regime minister Ko Ko Hlaing departed Naypyidaw on Friday for The Hague, where the International Court of Justice (ICJ) hearings in The Gambia v. Myanmar, also known as the Rohingya genocide case, will take place Jan. 12-29. The Burmese Rohingya Organization UK (BROUK) said that this is the next step in accountability for crimes committed in Arakan State since 2016.
“A final decision or outcome will be reached, within the next seven or eight months, or at most one year, once these hearings are completed,” BROUK President Tun Khin told DVB. The ICJ has declared that both Gambia and Burma will file their arguments and provide evidence, adding that the hearings will take place behind closed doors. Approximately 750,000 Rohingya fled their homes and into Bangladesh.
In November 2019, Gambia filed a case before the ICJ alleging that Burma’s atrocities against the Rohingya constitute genocide and violate the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. The ICJ is primarily concerned with acts against the Rohingya committed by the military in northern Arakan since 2016, following so-called “security clearance operations.”
News by Region
NAYPYIDAW—A source close to the Myanmar Rice Federation told DVB that the Myanma Agricultural Development Bank will provide 85 billion MMK ($22 million USD) in loans for farmers to grow 12 rice species in Yangon, Naypyidaw, Bago and Ayeyarwady regions. The project will begin this month on 340,000 acres.
The source added that farmers can apply for 250,000 MMK ($65 USD) in loans per acre at a one per cent interest rate from regime-controlled banks. Any farmer who can grow at least three of the 12 selected rice varieties on contiguous plots totaling 100 acres can apply for the loans.
SAGAING—Four civilians, including two children, were killed and at least two others were injured by paramotor attacks on Nyaungpinte and Taungphila villages in Chaung-U Township on Saturday, residents told DVB. Chaung-U is located 16 miles (25 km) south of the region’s capital Monywa.
A Chaung-U resident told DVB on the condition of anonymity that one child was killed while watching the paramotor, while the second child died en route to hospital. The two villages have 250 households. Chaung-U is one of 11 Sagaing townships where the second round of voting was held on Jan. 11.
The People’s Defense Force (PDF) under the command of the National Unity Government (NUG) stated that to “uphold the law and prevent public disturbances” it removed four gates run by an armed group calling itself the Burma National Revolutionary Army in Pale Township on Friday.
Pale, seized by the PDF and BNRA in June, is located 35 miles (56 km) southwest of the region’s capital Monywa. A Pale resident told DVB on the condition of anonymity that the PDF controls the southern portion of the township, while the BNRA controls the northern portion.
(Exchange rate: $1 USD = 3,920 MMK)
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