YANGON, Myanmar — Myanmar’s dominant pro-military party on Tuesday claimed a majority of elected lower house seats in the Southeast Asian country’s junta-run polls, which democracy watchdogs say will prolong the armed forces’ grip.
The military has ruled Myanmar by force for almost all of its post-independence history, before a decade-long democratic experiment gave civilian politicians tentative control.
But the generals took back power in a February 2021 coup deposing the government of Aung San Suu Kyi, detaining the democratic figurehead and plunging the country into civil war.
The junta is overseeing a staggered election it pledges will return power to the people after the third and final phase of voting on Jan. 25.
With Suu Kyi detained and her National League for Democracy party dissolved, democracy advocates say it has been rigged by a dissent purge and a ballot stacked with military allies in the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP).
A USDP official — speaking anonymously because they were not authorized to disclose results — told Agence France-Presse (AFP) they “won 87 seats out of 100” in Sunday’s second phase of the vote.
Combined with confirmed overwhelming wins in the first phase, the official’s figures give the party 176 lower house seats so far — just over half the 330 elected positions, even before the third phase has taken place.
Tom Andrews, the United Nations’ special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, said in a statement last week that “the junta engineered the polls to ensure victory for its proxy, entrench military domination in Myanmar, and manufacture a facade of legitimacy.”
There are 440 seats in Myanmar’s lower house, but 110 are reserved for the armed forces under the military-drafted constitution.
And analysts describe the USDP, many of whose officials are retired officers, as the military’s prime political proxy.
The country’s parliament is due to convene in March, when lawmakers from the combined lower and upper houses will choose the president, and junta chief Min Aung Hlaing has not ruled out resigning as top general to take over the civilian role.
Source: Myanmar pro-military party claims most seats in junta-run election
