Low turnout marks junta-run election in Myanmar as critics call vote not credible
Voters in Myanmar appeared to cast ballots in low numbers in the first phase of a military-organized general election, the country’s first since the 2021 coup toppled the elected civilian government led by Aung San Suu Kyi.
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The ruling junta, which crushed nationwide pro-democracy protests after seizing power and now faces an entrenched armed rebellion, says the three-stage vote is a path to stability and a restored civilian-led system. But the United Nations, several Western governments and human rights groups have condemned the exercise as neither free nor fair, noting that anti-junta parties are barred and it is illegal to criticize the polls.
Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate whose National League for Democracy won a landslide in 2020 before being ousted, remains in detention and the NLD has been dissolved. “The junta’s election is designed to prolong the military’s power of slavery over people,” she said. “And USDP and other allied parties with the military will join forces to form the next government.”
Residents across key cities said turnout trailed far behind the 2020 vote, held under COVID-19 restrictions. Only scattered queues formed at some polling stations in Yangon, including near military housing, while other sites in the commercial capital and in Mandalay were largely quiet, according to people who visited or lived near the sites. In Myawaddy on the Thai border and Mawlamyine in the southeast, voters cast ballots under heavy security, several residents said. In Hakha, capital of Chin State, streets were empty after a local rebel group urged a boycott.
The vote unfolds across 265 of Myanmar’s 330 townships, though the military does not have full control of many areas. Additional rounds are scheduled for Jan. 11 and Jan. 25. The junta’s legal framework sets no minimum turnout requirement, according to the Asian Network for Free Elections. Turnout reached about 70% in both the 2015 and 2020 general elections, the International Foundation for Electoral Systems has reported.
Junta chief Min Aung Hlaing cast his ballot in the heavily guarded capital, Naypyitaw, and showed his ink-stained pinky finger on state media, as voters are required to dip a finger in indelible ink to prevent multiple voting. He told reporters preliminary results from the first phase would be announced after polls closed but gave no timeline for final results. Asked if he aims to become president — a role analysts say he covets — he replied that parliament follows its own process to elect the head of state and noted he is not a political party leader.
Tom Andrews, the U.N. special envoy for human rights in Myanmar, said the elections are not a pathway out of crisis and should be rejected by the international community. A junta spokesman, Zaw Min Tun, acknowledged outside criticism but said the process would deliver “political stability” and “a better future.”
The military’s effort to install a civilian veneer in the midst of war carries obvious risks, analysts say, and broad foreign recognition is unlikely for any government perceived as controlled by the armed forces. Beyond battlefield dynamics, public enthusiasm is markedly subdued. Residents in multiple cities said they faced no overt pressure to vote, but the energy of past campaigns was absent.
The military-aligned Union Solidarity and Development Party has been the most visible in recent weeks. Founded in 2010, the USDP won that year’s poll — boycotted by the opposition — and governed with its military backers until 2015, when it was swept aside by Suu Kyi’s NLD.
With credible opposition sidelined and fighting ongoing in several regions, the vote’s outcome appears predetermined to many inside and outside the country. Whether it delivers the stability the junta promises, or deepens Myanmar’s isolation and conflict, will hinge on what follows these sparsely attended polls.
By Abdiwahab Ahmed
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.
