Myanmar Wraps Up First Phase of General Elections
Polling locations across 102 townships commenced operations at 6 am local time (2315GMT Saturday) and shuttered at 4 pm (0930GMT) as phase one concluded, Yangon-based outlet reported.
A total of 139 representatives from diplomatic organizations, including international election observers, were observing the election, Myanmar's Foreign Ministry said, according to the news outlet.
Subsequent voting rounds are scheduled for Jan. 11 and Jan. 25, respectively.
The Union Election Commission established 21,517 polling locations nationwide.
International monitors included delegations from Russia, China, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Cambodia, Vietnam, Nicaragua, India, and the Myanmar-Japan Association.
The democratically elected administration headed by Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) was toppled in 2021, throwing the nation into more than four years of emergency governance. The NLD secured victory in November 2020 general elections.
Though 40 political organizations were disbanded in 2023, including the NLD, at least six parties — fielding 4,963 candidates — are participating in the ballot.
At regional tiers, 57 parties are competing. The military-aligned Union Solidarity and Development Party nominated approximately 1,018 candidates.
Following his ballot submission in capital Naypyidaw, Burmese junta commander and acting President Min Aung Hlaing claimed the elections "are free and fair."
"It's organized by the Tatmadaw [military], we can't let our name be tarnished," he said, according to a news website.
When questioned about potential presidential ambitions post-vote, he indicated his civil servant status prevented commentary or action.
Nevertheless, he declined to dismiss a post-election position, noting that once parliament convenes, constitutional procedures govern presidential selection, and only afterward would discussion be fitting.
Myanmar operates a bicameral 664-seat parliament — 440 in the lower chamber and 224 in the upper chamber.
Following the vote, parliament must assemble within three months to select speakers and choose a president – the head of state who appoints the prime minister to establish government.
Since the takeover, the Buddhist-majority country of over 54 million inhabitants has endured devastating internal ethnic warfare involving armed factions and military forces, claiming thousands of lives and displacing over 3.5 million people.
The junta has not disclosed timing for vote tabulation and outcome announcements.
Via a post on US social platform X, UN special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, Tom Andrews, called on the international community to reject the legitimacy of the elections.
"The international community must strongly reject the military junta's theatre of the absurd 'election' that is underway right now in Myanmar. Nothing legitimate can emerge from this farcical, illegitimate exercise," he said on Sunday.
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