{"id":11092,"date":"2025-12-29T11:52:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-29T06:52:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/?p=11092"},"modified":"2025-12-29T12:22:21","modified_gmt":"2025-12-29T07:22:21","slug":"myanmar-pro-military-party-winning-junta-run-poll-first-phase-source","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/asia\/myanmar-pro-military-party-winning-junta-run-poll-first-phase-source\/","title":{"rendered":"Myanmar pro-military party ‘winning’ junta-run poll first phase: source"},"content":{"rendered":"

Naypyidaw \u2013\u00a0<\/em>Myanmar’s dominant pro-military party is “winning a majority” in the first phase of junta-run elections, a party source told AFP Monday, after democracy watchdogs warned the poll would entrench military rule.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The armed forces snatched power in a 2021 coup, but on Sunday opened voting in a phased month-long election they pledge will return power to the people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The massively popular but dissolved party of democratic figurehead Aung San Suu Kyi did not appear on ballots, and she remains jailed since the military putsch which triggered a civil war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Campaigners, Western diplomats and the United Nations’ rights chief have condemned the vote — citing a stark crackdown on dissent and a candidate list stacked with military allies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The USDP is winning a majority of seats around the country according to different reports,” said a party official in the capital Naypyidaw, requesting anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Official results have yet to be posted by Myanmar’s Union Election Commission and there are two more phases scheduled for January 11 and 25.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The military overturned the results of the last poll in 2020 after Suu Kyi’s party, the National League for Democracy, trounced the Union Solidarity and Development Party.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The military and USDP then alleged massive voter fraud, claims which international monitors say were unfounded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But on Sunday military chief Min Aung Hlaing — who has ruled by diktat for the past five years — said the armed forces could be trusted to hand back power to a civilian-led government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We guarantee it to be a free and fair election,” he told reporters after casting his vote in Naypyidaw. “It’s organised by the military, we can’t let our name be tarnished.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The military’s coup triggered a civil war as pro-democracy activists formed guerrilla units, fighting alongside ethnic minority armies which have long resisted central rule.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sunday’s election was scheduled to take place in 102 of the country’s 330 townships — the largest of the three rounds of voting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But amid the war, the military has acknowledged that elections cannot happen in almost one in five lower house constituencies.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Naypyidaw \u2013\u00a0Myanmar’s dominant pro-military party is “winning a majority” in the first phase of junta-run elections, a party source told AFP Monday, after democracy watchdogs warned the poll would entrench military rule. The armed forces snatched power in a 2021 coup, but on Sunday opened voting in a phased month-long election they pledge will return […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":11093,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[80,396,342],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11092","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-asia","category-latest","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11092"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11092"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11092\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}