Voter turnout has been lower than expected in Myanmar for the first elections since the military overthrew a democratically elected government in 2021.
Myanmar’s multi-phase, month-long election has been widely dismissed as a sham by many governments and human rights activists who have said the military will use proxy candidates to legitimise its rule.
Initial reports from Sunday’s poll suggested that voter turnout was significantly lower than in the last election in 2020, which was won by Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) party.
The military overthrew Aung San Suu Kyi’s NLD government and has been waging a deadly war against resistance groups for four years.
More than 3 million people have been displaced, and tens of thousands have been killed, according to conflict monitors.
Tom Andrews, a U.N. human rights expert on Myanmar, labelled the election a “theater of the absurd performed at gunpoint”.
“An election organized by a junta that continues to bomb civilians, jail political leaders, and criminalize all forms of dissent is not an election,” he posted on social media.
Final results to be announced
Voting is taking place in three phases, with the first — Sunday, local time — being held in 102 of Myanmar’s 330 townships.
Subsequent phases will take place on January 11 and 25, but 65 townships won’t participate in the election because of ongoing armed conflicts.
Final results are expected to be announced by February.
It is widely expected that Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, who has governed Myanmar since the army takeover in 2021, will then assume the presidency.
While more than 4,800 candidates from 57 parties are competing for seats in national and regional legislatures, only six are competing nationwide with the possibility to gain political clout in parliament.
The military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) is by far the strongest contender.
According to a count carried out at one polling station in Yangon after the polls closed, only 524 of 1,431 registered voters — just under 37 percent — cast their ballots.
Of those, 311 voted for the pro-military USDP, suggesting that opposition calls for a voter boycott may have been heeded.
Aung San Suu Kyi, 80, is serving a 27-year prison term on charges widely viewed as spurious and politically motivated.
Her party was dissolved in 2023 after refusing to register under new military rules.
ABC
