Myanmar wraps election, military dominance certain

Voting was held Sunday in Myanmar in the final round of a three-stage general election, capping a nearly monthlong process that has already ensured the country’s military rulers and their allies will command a parliamentary majority to form a new government.
Critics say the polls were neither free nor fair, and were designed to legitimise the power of the military after it ousted the elected civilian government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021.
The army-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party, or USDP, had already won most of the seats contested in the first two rounds of voting. Twenty-five per cent of the seats in the upper and lower houses of the national Parliament are reserved for the military, guaranteeing it and its allies control of the legislature.
Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, who heads the current military government, is widely expected by both supporters and opponents to assume the presidency when the new Parliament meets.
The army’s 2021 takeover triggered widespread opposition that dragged Myanmar into a civil war. Security concerns engendered by the fighting meant voting was not held in more than one-fifth of the country’s 330 townships, another reason the process was described as neither free nor fair.
Malaysian Foreign Minister Mohamad Hasan on Tuesday said the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, of which Myanmar is a member, did not send observers and would not certify the election, citing concerns over the lack of inclusive and free participation. Min Aung Hlaing pushed back against critics of the polls on Sunday, declaring that “the people who live in Myanmar are the ones who vote. Not those from outside.”
“We are not concerned whether this is recognised by foreign countries or not. We recognise the people’s vote. It should be like that,” he told journalists after inspecting a polling station in Mandalay, the country’s second-largest city. Asked if he intended to take part in the new government, he declined to comment, noting the president would be selected when Parliament meets.
Suu Kyi, Myanmar’s 80-year-old former leader, and her party did not participate in the polls. She is serving a 27-year prison term on charges widely viewed as spurious and politically motivated. Her party, the National League for Democracy, won landslide victories in the 2020 and 2015 elections, but was forced to dissolve in 2023 after refusing to register under new military rules.
Other parties also refused to register or declined to run under conditions they deem unfair, while opposition groups called for a voter boycott.