Myanmar’s dominant pro-military party on Tuesday (January 13, 2026) claimed a majority of elected lower house seats in the 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 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 January 25.

With Ms. Suu Kyi detained and her 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 authorised to disclose results— told 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.

The UN’s special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar Tom Andrews said in a statement last week “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.

Parliament is due to convene in March, when MPs 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.

Myanmar’s pro-military party has a decisive lead in the first phase of junta-run elections, with the USDP winning 90% of the lower house seats announced so far, official results published in state media showed.

The military grabbed power in a 2021 putsch that triggered civil war, pitting pro-democracy rebels against junta forces for control of the country.

Myanmar’s junta opened voting in the phased month-long election a week ago, with its leaders pledging the poll would bring on democracy. However, rights advocates and Western diplomats have condemned it as a sham and a rebranding of martial rule.

The dominant pro-military Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) has won 87 of the 96 lower house seats announced, according to partial results from the Union Election Commission (UEC) released on Saturday and Sunday in state media.

Six ethnic minority parties picked up nine seats.

The winners of six more townships have yet to be announced in the first phase of voting. Two more phases are scheduled for January 11 and 25.

The USDP — which many analysts describe as a civilian proxy of the military — claimed an overwhelming victory in the first phase last week.

The massively popular but dissolved National League for Democracy (NLD) of democratic figurehead Aung San Suu Kyi did not appear on ballots, and she has been jailed since the coup.

The military overturned the results of the last poll in 2020 after the NLD defeated the USDP by a landslide.

The military and USDP then alleged massive voter fraud, claims that international monitors say were unfounded.

The USDP also won 14 of the 15 regional and state constituency seats announced in the first phase, according to UEC results published in the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper.

The junta has said turnout in the first phase exceeded 50% of eligible voters, below the 2020 participation rate of around 70%.

Myanmar’s junta on Tuesday (December 30, 2025) accused rebels of “malicious and brutal” attacks on the day and eve of military-run elections, wounding at least five civilians with drones, rockets and bombs.

The armed forces snatched power in a 2021 coup that triggered civil war, but on Sunday, opened voting in a phased, month-long election they pledged would return power to the people.

Campaigners, Western diplomats and the United Nations’ rights chief condemned the vote, citing a crackdown on dissent and a candidate list stacked with military allies likely to prolong the armed forces’ rule.

Pro-democracy guerrillas and ethnic minority armies opposing the military have pledged to block the election from the patchwork territories they have carved out in the war.

Between Saturday (December 27) and Sunday (December 28) evening, they attacked in 11 townships out of the 102 where voting was staged in the election’s first phase, according to state media.

The junta-run Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper listed rebel attacks ranging from “firing homemade heavy weapons and rockets from a distance” to “dropping bombs using drones”.

Some were said to directly target polling stations, but others allegedly hit government buildings and civilian settlements.

“While the government and the people were choosing the democratic path, terrorist groups continued violent extremism,” said The Global New Light of Myanmar.

The junta also accused the unnamed groups of “issuing threat letters”, “spreading false information” and “blocking” would-be voters from travelling to cast ballots.

It said the groups aimed “to disrupt the election process… destroy open polling stations, and intimidate voters”.

“Although only five civilians were injured, voters who firmly believed in democracy, had confidence in and supported the election management of the government queued to cast votes,” the newspaper added.

“There are always people who like and dislike,” he said at a polling station that later reported a turnout of below 37%. While official results have yet to be posted, the pro-military Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) on Monday (December 29) claimed an overwhelming lead in the election’s first phase.

The party won 82 out of the 102 lower house seats contested on Sunday (December 28), a senior party official told AFP on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to disclose the results.

At the last poll in 2020, the USDP was trounced by Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy, which was dissolved after the coup and did not appear on ballots in this election.

The Nobel laureate has been in detention since the putsch.

Many analysts describe the USDP as a military proxy set to entrench the power of the armed forces in civilian guise.

The UN said on Tuesday (December 23, 2025) that Myanmar’s junta was using violence and intimidation to force people to vote in upcoming military-controlled elections, while armed opposition groups were using similar tactics to keep people away.

“The military authorities in Myanmar must stop using brutal violence to compel people to vote and stop arresting people for expressing any dissenting views,” United Nations rights chief Volker Turk said in a statement.

Myanmar’s junta is set to preside over voting starting Sunday, touting heavily restricted polls as a return to democracy five years after it ousted the last elected government, triggering civil war.

But former civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi remains jailed and her hugely popular party dissolved after soldiers ended the nation’s decade-long democratic experiment in February 2021.

International monitors have dismissed the phased month-long vote as a rebranding of martial rule.

Mr. Turk, who last month told AFP that holding elections in Myanmar under the current circumstances was “unfathomable”, warned Tuesday (December 23, 2025) that civilians were being threatened by both the military authorities and armed opposition groups over their participation in the polls.

His statement highlighted the dozens of individuals who have reportedly been detained under an “election protection law” for exercising their freedom of expression.

Many had been slapped with “extremely harsh sentences”, the statement said, pointing to three youths in Hlainghaya Township in the Yangon region who were sentenced to between 42 and 49 years behind bars for hanging up anti-election posters.

The UN rights office said it had also received reports from displaced people in several parts of the country, including the Mandalay region, who had been warned they would be attacked or their homes seized if they did not return to vote.

“Forcing displaced people to undertake unsafe and involuntary returns is a human rights violation,” Mr. Turk stressed.

He said that people were also facing “serious threats” from armed groups opposing the military, including nine women teachers from Kyaikto who were reportedly abducted last month while travelling to attend a training on the ballot.

They were then “released with warnings from the perpetrators”, the statement said.

It also pointed to how the self-declared Yangon Army bombed administration offices in Hlegu and North Okkalapa townships in the Yangon region, injuring several election staff, and had vowed to “keep attacking election organisers”.

“These elections are clearly taking place in an environment of violence and repression,” Mr. Turk said.

“There are no conditions for the exercise of the rights of freedom of expression, association or peaceful assembly that allow for the free and meaningful participation of the people.”

Around 20,000 soldiers and 200 military officials have deserted the Myanmar military, which is engaged in combating Ethnic Armed Organisations (EAOs), said a military officer who deserted his post in Sagaing region bordering India’s Northeast after the junta started a crackdown following the February 2021 coup.

In an exclusive chat with The Hindu held here this week, Capt. Kaung Thu Win, who left the military in 2021, said the Myanmar military “indiscriminately killed civilians and confiscated private property and indulged in human rights abuses” that requires a solution that will not emerge from the three-phase election that Myanmar will undergo from December 28.

“Many military personnel are unwilling to participate in the killings and property grab that are going on in Myanmar. Around 20,000 soldiers and 200 military officers who have deserted the Tatmadaw (Myanmar military) are staying in Myanmar’s border areas with India and Thailand and in the “liberated zones” inside Myanmar,” Captain Kaung Thu Win said during a rare visit to New Delhi this week.

The 36-year-old captain had joined the Defence Service Academy located in Pyin Oo Lwin at the age of 16 and said he witnessed “a lot of crimes being committed by the military against common people since the beginning of the coup in February 2021.”

“I saw the military using civilians as human shields, confiscation of private property by the soldiers, arbitrary demolition of homes as punitive measures. All these were normal things for my colleagues that became part of their lives and I could not accept that,” said Kaung Thu Win explaining the reasons that prompted him to leave his post at the Northwest Command of Myanmar military at Monywa in Sagaing region, which borders India’s Northeast.

“My wife was pregnant when the crackdown began and we waited for the birth of our child and after that I left Myanmar in December 2021 and reached India after travelling in public transport and bikes on January 15, 2022,” he said, adding “my family joined me sometime later near Myanmar’s border with Mizoram”. He added that he is aware of many military officers who are in a difficult situation as they are being forced to do things that are against their conscience.

Captain Kaung Thu Win said that since leaving Myanmar, he has become the India-representative of ‘People’s Goal’, an organisation that is campaigning for restoration of democracy in Myanmar. He acknowledged that while life has not been easy since leaving his job in the military, he was helped indirectly by the Indian authorities who have displayed leniency towards him that enabled him to reside in Mizoram and allowed him to visit Delhi ahead of the national elections in Myanmar.

“The junta wants to hold elections without any reform and it is further proof that the armed struggle is the only option as the military is not serious about holding talks with the Opposition or the exiled National Unity Government,” said Kaung Thu Win adding that 30 EAOs are part of the resistance whereas around 10 outfits are currently fighting the military.

He urged India to convey to Myanmar’s military that the “people of Myanmar have rejected the election already”.

“India is reportedly planning to send observers to watch the election but in reality there is already a ‘silent strike’ of the election that is taking place in Myanmar,” said the former army man who argued that the “military can’t be trusted with military power”.

Myanmar’s junta acknowledged on Monday (September 15, 2025) its long-promised election would not be held in about one in seven national Parliament constituencies, as it battles myriad rebel forces opposed to the poll.

A civil war has consumed Myanmar since the military snatched power in a 2021 coup, jailing democratic figurehead Aung San Suu Kyi and deposing her civilian government.

The military has touted elections — due to start in phases on December 28 — as a path to reconciliation.

However monitors are slating the poll as a ploy to legitimise continuing military rule, while it is set to be boycotted by many ousted lawmakers and blocked by armed opposition groups in enclaves they control.

A notice by Myanmar’s Union Election Commission shared in state media said elections would not be held in 56 lower house constituencies and nine upper house constituencies.

The notice did not provide a specific reason for the cancellation but said “these constituencies have been deemed not conducive to holding free and fair elections”.

However, many of the territories are known battlegrounds or areas where the military has lost control to an array of pro-democracy guerrillas and powerful ethnic minority armed organisations defying its writ.

There are a total of 440 constituencies for Myanmar’s upper and lower houses, with the 65 cancelled accounting for nearly 15% of the total.

They include the rebel-held ruby mining hub of Mogok, a majority of constituencies in western Rakhine state where the military has lost ground, and numerous areas the junta has been hammering with air strikes.

Myanmar’s junta lost swaths of territory when scattered opposition groups committed to a combined offensive starting in late 2023, but it has recently clawed back some ground with several victories.

Nonetheless, there have been other signs the poll will be limited in scope.

A census held last year in preparation for the election estimated it failed to collect data from 19 million of the country’s 51 million people, according to provisional findings.

“Significant security constraints” were cited as one reason for the shortfall.