Aung San Suu Kyi’s Yangon seat won by military-proxy
The People’s Party told DVB that it suspects errors in the counting of ballots in Kawhmu Township, Yangon Region, after voting was completed in the second round of the military’s 2025–26 elections on Sunday. Kawhmu is located 36 miles (57 km) south of the commercial capital Yangon.
Kyaw Kyaw Htwe, a candidate for the People’s Party contesting the seat in Kawhmu for the Pyithu Hluttaw, or lower house of parliament, told DVB that the military-proxy Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP)’s candidate Aung Myo Than won Kawhmu with over 30,000 votes.
He told DVB that he had only received 12,000 votes but would request the regime’s Union Election Commission (UEC) recount all ballots cast in Kawhmu, which has been held by Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy (NLD) party since by-elections in 2012. Suu Kyi, 80, remains in prison. Read more
Myanmar’s election in numbers
Burma is holding a general election with three voting phases in what the regime says will usher in a return to civilian rule following a 2021 military coup. Following are facts and figures on elections in Burma: Four national elections have been held over the past 35 years, but only two – in 2010 and 2015 – resulted in the formation of elected governments.
The 2020 election was annulled by a military coup on Feb. 1, 2021, as was a 1990 ballot – 20 years after it took place and was ignored. A total of 4,863 candidates have registered for this election. Six parties are taking part nationwide and 51 are vying for seats in a single region or state.
Forty parties were dissolved in 2023 for failing to register for the election, including the NLD, which was ousted from government in the 2021 coup. Only 265 of Burma’s 330 townships are holding polls during the first three rounds. It is unclear when or if the rest will be contested, with a civil war raging in many areas. No date has been set for announcing the final results. Read more
How Min Aung Hlaing holds on to power
His name is not on the ballot, and his photographs don’t appear on campaign posters. But one man looms large over the general election underway in Burma: Senior General Min Aung Hlaing. The 69-year-old regime leader has ruled the impoverished Southeast Asian nation since ousting Aung San Suu Kyi’s NLD government in a 2021 coup.
That sparked a civil war of unprecedented violence, which has displaced nearly four million people and seen large swathes of territory seized by resistance forces. Min Aung Hlaing said in a New Year address, as votes for the first phase of the election were being counted, that he intends to hand over “state responsibilities” to the next government.
Aung San Suu Kyi’s NLD party is not contesting this election since it was dissolved by the UEC. Other major opposition parties are not contesting the polls either, which have been widely criticised as an exercise to keep the regime in power via proxies. The U.N. and human rights groups in Burma have said the elections are neither free nor fair. Read more
News by Region
ARAKAN—Bangladesh media reported that one girl from Teknaf was injured during fighting between the Arakan Army (AA) and the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), Arakan Rohingya Army (ARA), and Rohingya Islami Mahaz, after they allegedly launched attacks on AA positions on Sunday.
“An unknown number of Muslim armed group members were killed,” a source from the AA told DVB on the condition of anonymity. A Bangladesh police officer announced that a total of 52 members of ARSA, ARA, and Rohingya Islami Mahaz who fled into Bangladesh were apprehended.
KAREN—A member of the Border Guard Force (BGF) was killed and four others were injured by airstrikes carried out by the Burma Air Force in Udaung village, Hlaingbwe Township, on Monday. Hlaingbwe is located 23 miles (37 km) northeast of the state capital Hpa-An.
Residents told DVB on the condition of anonymity that the BGF members killed were those who didn’t follow leader Chit Thu into his new group called the “Karen National Army (KNA).” At least 200 residents from Udaung and Kutoseik villages have been forced to flee their homes due to airstrikes.
MON—The Mon Unity Party (MUP) won five seats in the Pyithu Hluttaw and another five in the Amyotha Hluttaw, or upper house of parliament, and seven more in the state parliament after voting in phase two of elections were concluded in all 10 Mon townships on Jan. 11, according to the UEC.
The MUP came second only to the USDP, which scored 21 seats across all three levels of parliament. The Ramonnya Mon Army (RMA) killed four regime troops during an attack on five regime outposts in Mudon and Ye townships during voting on Jan. 11. The two towns are located 16-95 miles (25-152 km) south of the state capital Mawlamyine.
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