Voting concluded in Myanmar’s month-long national election on Sunday (Jan 25), with the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) on course for a sweeping victory in a poll widely criticised as a bid to entrench the junta’s grip on power rather than restore genuine civilian rule.
The Southeast Asian nation has endured decades of military dominance, punctuated by a brief experiment with democratic governance between 2011 and 2021. That period ended abruptly when the armed forces seized power on Feb 1, 2021, detaining elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi, nullifying the results of the 2020 elections, and plunging the country into a protracted civil conflict and deepening humanitarian crisis.
The third and final phase of voting closed this weekend, covering dozens of constituencies across Myanmar, just days ahead of the fifth anniversary of the coup. The junta has promoted the election as a roadmap back to stability and civilian administration, but critics argue the process has been tightly controlled to ensure a predetermined outcome favourable to the military.
With Suu Kyi sidelined and her National League for Democracy (NLD) party dissolved, most major opposition forces were barred from participating. Democracy advocates and international observers say the ballot has been stacked with military-aligned parties and candidates, while large swathes of the country remain excluded from voting altogether.
Junta chief Min Aung Hlaing, who has not ruled out assuming the presidency after the poll, toured voting stations in Mandalay on Sunday dressed in civilian clothing. Speaking to reporters, he defended the process as legitimate.
“This is the path chosen by the people,” he said. “The people from Myanmar can support whoever they want to support.”
However, voting was not conducted in many conflict-affected and rebel-held regions, where armed resistance groups continue to challenge military control. Rights organisations say the pre-election period in junta-controlled areas was marked by intimidation, arrests of critics, and restrictions on political expression.
Despite the climate of fear, some voters participated. Zaw Ko Ko Myint, a 53-year-old teacher, cast his ballot at a Mandalay high school shortly after dawn.
“Although I do not expect much, we want to see a better country,” he said. “I feel relieved after voting, as if I fulfilled my duty.”
Preliminary tallies from earlier phases of the election suggest a dominant showing for the USDP, a party staffed largely by retired military officers and widely viewed by analysts as a proxy for the armed forces. The party secured more than 85 per cent of elected seats in the lower house and roughly two-thirds of the upper house during the first two phases of voting.
Even before the final ballots were cast, international criticism mounted. United Nations Special Rapporteur on Myanmar Tom Andrews warned governments against recognising the results.
“States that endorse the results of these polls will be complicit in the junta’s attempt to legitimise military rule through a fabricated vote,” he said in a statement on Friday.
Under Myanmar’s military-drafted constitution, the armed forces are guaranteed 25 per cent of seats in both chambers of parliament, giving them decisive influence. The combined legislature will ultimately vote to select the president, ensuring the military retains effective control regardless of electoral outcomes.
Many citizens remain deeply sceptical. A 34-year-old Yangon resident, speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons, dismissed the election as meaningless.
“I don’t expect anything from this election,” he said. “Things will just keep dragging on.”
Suu Kyi, the 80-year-old Nobel Peace Prize laureate who led the NLD to a landslide victory in the 2020 elections, remains detained incommunicado at an undisclosed location. She faces multiple charges that rights groups and international observers describe as politically motivated.
Official results from the latest phase of voting are expected later this week, but for many inside and outside Myanmar, the election is seen less as a turning point than as another chapter in the country’s ongoing political crisis.
