Nine civilians, including a police officer, were injured by an attack on the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) office and two other locations, including a polling station, in Myawaddy Township, Karen State, on Saturday, residents told DVB.
A Myawaddy resident told DVB on the condition of anonymity that an unknown number of buildings and vehicles were damaged by a drone attack. Myawaddy is located 85 miles (137 km) east of the Karen State capital Hpa-An.
Two other drone attacks were reported near the Myawaddy town police station and a polling station, two hours after the first attack on the USDP office. No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks.
These drone attacks occurred in territories located along the Myanmar-Thailand border under the control of the pro-military Karen Border Guard Force (BGF), the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), the Karen National Union/Karen National Liberation Army Peace Council (KNU/KNLA Peace Council), and other unnamed pro-military militias.
The first phase of the regime’s 2025-26 elections are underway with voting at polling stations in 102 townships nationwide, including Karen’s Hpa-An, Myawaddy and Thantaunggyi townships, on Dec. 28.
A group calling itself the Yangon Army claimed that it attacked the People’s Pioneer Party (PPP) office in Yangon’s Hmawbi Township on Dec. 25.
A Yangon Army member told DVB on the condition of anonymity that the reason for the attack was to oppose political parties legitimizing the regime elections by participating in them.
It also claimed that it attacked an administration office in Hlegu Township on Dec. 23, where regime-appointed administrators and pro-military militia members were allegedly holding an election-related meeting inside.
An explosion occurred near the People’s Party office in Yangon’s Mingala Taungnyunt Township on Dec. 21, which destroyed the party’s election campaign billboard and damaged an unknown number of vehicles.
Voting is happening today in 12 out of 45 Yangon townships, including Kamayut, Kyauktada, Taikkyi, Twente, South Dagon, Botahtaung, Mayangon, Mingaladon, Hmawbi, Thingangyun, Thanlyin and Alone townships.
The regime’s Yangon Region government lifted the 1:00 a.m. to 4:00 a.m. curfew, in place since the military coup on Feb. 1, 2021, in 44 of 45 townships on Dec. 26.
Fifty-seven political parties have registered with six, including the USDP, the PPP and the People’s Party, contesting the regime elections nationwide.
Polls will be held in 265 out of Myanmar’s total 330 townships, according to the regime’s Union Election Commission (UEC). Voting will not be held in 65 townships, but will take place in the urban areas of another 10.
The National League for Democracy (NLD) party, which was ousted in the 2021 military coup, was dissolved by the UEC in 2023 for not re-registering following the coup.
The NLD won back-to-back landslide victories in the two previous elections 2015 and 2020 – both declared free and fair by international electoral observers.
Senior General Min Aung Hlaing claimed electoral fraud by the NLD as the reason for the coup, but has never provided any evidence to the people of Myanmar.
He has held NLD State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi and President Win Myint in detention ever since Feb. 1, 2021. Aung San Suu Kyi’s son Kim Aris fears his 80-year-old mother may have died in prison, as the regime hasn’t provided any proof of life from her in over two years.
The NLD, along with the National Unity Government (NUG), a group of elected lawmakers ousted in the 2021 coup, and the Women’s League of Burma (WLB), representing Myanmar women’s groups, have called on citizens to boycott and reject the regime elections.
