Myanmar Holds First Elections Since Military Coup

(MENAFN) The opening phase of Myanmar’s general elections, the first since the military takeover in 2021, commenced early Sunday, according to media accounts.

A total of 102 townships are participating in this initial stage of voting. The subsequent phases are scheduled for January 11 and January 25, as reported by a news agency.

Polling began at 6 a.m. local time (2315 GMT Saturday), with the Union Election Commission establishing 21,517 polling stations nationwide.

International monitors from Russia, China, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Cambodia, Vietnam, Nicaragua, India, and the Myanmar-Japan Association have already arrived to oversee the process.

The civilian administration led by Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) was removed in 2021, plunging the nation into more than four years of emergency governance. The NLD had previously secured victory in the November 2020 elections.

In 2023, 40 political parties, including the NLD, were dissolved. Despite this, six parties with 4,963 candidates are competing in the current polls. At the regional level, 57 parties are also contesting. The military-aligned Union Solidarity and Development Party has fielded around 1,018 candidates.

After casting his ballot in Nay Pyi Taw, Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, chairman of the Interim Presidential Commission for National Security and Peace, told reporters that the military-organized election would be “free and fair,” according to a news agency.

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