Myanmar Begins Second Round of General Election Voting in 100 Regions... Only Pro-Military Parties Participate

The second round of voting was held on January 11 (local time), as Myanmar’s military regime held a general election for the first time in four years and ten months since seizing power in a coup.

Voters lined up to vote in Mandalay, Myanmar.

According to foreign media reports, the Union Election Commission (UEC), which is controlled by the Myanmar military, began the second round of voting in 100 out of the country’s 330 administrative regions (townships) on this day.

The first round of voting had already taken place in 102 regions on December 28. After the second round on this day, the general election will conclude with a third round of voting in 63 regions on January 25. However, voting will not be held in the remaining 65 regions due to escalating civil conflict. In the first round, the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), which is supported by the military, secured nearly 90% of the 102 lower house seats contested.

Six national parties are participating in this general election, all of which are pro-military, including the military-backed USDP. The National League for Democracy (NLD), founded by pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi during the 1988 pro-democracy uprising, was dissolved by the military regime in 2023 and is unable to field candidates.

The bicameral Myanmar Union Parliament consists of 664 seats: 440 in the lower house and 224 in the upper house. Under the constitution enacted by the military regime in 2008, 166 seats, or 25% of the total, are allocated to active-duty military personnel appointed by the Commander-in-Chief, while the remaining 498 seats are filled through elections. After the general election, the president is elected indirectly by parliament within 60 days.

Tom Andrews, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, criticized the election, stating, “Thousands of political prisoners are detained and credible opposition parties have been dissolved in Myanmar. With journalists silenced and basic freedoms trampled, it is impossible to hold a free and fair election.”

The Myanmar military claimed that the 2020 general election, in which Suu Kyi’s NLD won a landslide victory, was fraudulent, and seized power in a coup in February the following year. According to a report by Amnesty International, the military has killed more than 7,000 people and arbitrarily detained over 22,000 since the coup.