Polls close in first ballot of Myanmar's general election since military seized power in 2021 coup

The first of three phases of voting closed on Sunday in Myanmar in an election that comes nearly five years after the military seized power in a coup in 2021.

The polls' first round opened Sunday morning in 102 of Myanmar’s 330 townships, while the second and third phases will take place on 11 and 25 January, respectively.

Final results are expected to be announced by February after two more rounds of voting are completed, but the ballot is widely being criticised and dismissed after major political parties were dissolved, leaders jailed, and half the country not participating due to an ongoing civil war.

According to the United Nations, more than 3.6 million people have been displaced in the ensuing war.

Observers say the junta, with support from neighbours like China, India, and Thailand, is seeking to legitimise its power as it seeks a way out of the devastating stalemate.

The military government has presented the vote as a return to electoral democracy, but its bid for legitimacy is marred by bans on formerly popular opposition parties and reports that soldiers have used threats to force voters to participate.

Khin Marlar, 51, who voted at a polling station in Yangon’s Kyauktada township, said she felt she needed to vote because she hoped that peace would follow afterwards. She explained that she had fled her village in the town of Thaungta in the central Mandalay region due to the fighting.

“I am voting with the feeling that I will go back to my village when it is peaceful,” she told The Associated Press.

San Suu Kyi behind bars as elections hold

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 of gaining political clout in Parliament. The well-organised and funded Union Solidarity and Development Party, with its support from the military, is by far the strongest contender.

Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar’s 80-year-old former leader, and her party are not participating in the polls. She is serving a 27-year prison term on charges widely viewed as spurious and politically motivated. Her party, the National League for Democracy, was dissolved in 2023 after refusing to register under new military rules.

The military ousted the elected government of San Suu Kyi in February 2021. It blocked her National League for Democracy party from serving a second term despite winning a landslide victory in the 2020 election.

“An election organised by a junta that continues to bomb civilians, jail political leaders, and criminalise all forms of dissent is not an election — it is a theatre of the absurd performed at gunpoint,” Tom Andrews, the U.N.-appointed human rights expert for Myanmar, posted on X.

Western nations have maintained sanctions against Myanmar’s ruling generals due to their anti-democratic actions and the brutal war against their opponents.