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Aidan Jones

Myanmar’s military proxy party has claimed a predictable victory in an election widely condemned as a sham, a result likely to hardwire the junta into power indefinitely.
For millions of disenfranchised citizens like May*, who fled to neighbouring Thailand to escape the crackdown, the landslide win holds no credibility.
“None of us voted,” the 38-year-old migrant said.
“The military held the election for themselves and they won. But they have all of the power anyway, so what was the point?”
On Monday, Myanmar’s military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) said it had secured a majority to form a government after Sunday’s final round of voting.
“As we won the election, we will move forward,” a senior USDP official told Agence France-Presse, following wide-margin wins in the first two rounds to confirm what poll observers had long said was inevitable: a military-aligned clean sweep of parliamentary seats.

The military seized power after refusing to abide by the result of the last election in 2021, where it was hammered by Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD), triggering pro-democracy protests, a bloody crackdown and a civil war that still rages.
Suu Kyi has languished in jail since, while her party was banned from contesting the junta’s new election.
The United Nations, European Union and rights groups have called the poll a “sham”.
“Only an illegitimate government can emerge from an illegitimate election,” Tom Andrews, the UN’s special rapporteur on human rights for Myanmar, said in a post on social media.
“The world must reject it as fraudulent while rejecting what follows as simply military rule in civilian clothing.”
The polls were held only in areas under junta control, including the largest city, Yangon, the capital, Naypyidaw, and parts of Mandalay. But reports of a poor turnout despite forced voting have eroded junta hopes of a genuine mandate from the election, experts warn.
A triumphant junta leader Senior General Min Aung Hlaing on Sunday called the election “free from fraud” and reflective of “the genuine wishes” of the voting public, according to the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar.
In a state TV broadcast, he swatted away criticism of the poll, saying “whether the international community recognises or not, we don’t understand their perspective.
“The people’s vote is the recognition we need.”
China, Myanmar’s junta lifeline which provides diplomatic and economic backing to its neighbour, has supported the polls as a way to cut through the chaos and bloodshed engulfing the nation.

Remaking a military
Asean, the Southeast Asian diplomatic bloc which is taking an increasingly terse line with rogue member Myanmar, snubbed an invitation to send observers to the polls, with outgoing chair Malaysia saying it will not endorse the outcome.
It has urged Myanmar to stick to a five-point road map to peace, starting with de-escalation of violence, a gradual ceasefire and allowing humanitarian aid to reach its people.
The junta’s election will do nothing to end the conflict, ethnic armed groups have warned.
“The junta winning a landslide in its own election is just very, very funny,” Padoh Saw Taw Nee, a spokesman for the Karen National Union, told This Week in Asia.
“This is no surprise, this is not inclusive, there is no free will. We’ve always said this is a sham and not representative of the people. The only exit strategy is to terminate the military dictatorship – and the junta needs to withdraw from politics.”
Without peace, the violence would get worse, and the economy would wither, he added.
Underscoring the violence shadowing the polls, a report on Monday said the junta had intensified air strikes on civilians in recent months, deploying paramotors and gyrocopters – low-tech flying machines – across restive central areas.
“It’s a reminder to civilians, ‘hey we’re still here’, you may not see us on the ground, but we own the sky,” Chit Seng, a human rights associate at Fortify Rights, told This Week in Asia. “They have amplified the attacks during the election period.”
Formed in 2010, the USDP steered the country for five years before Suu Kyi’s NLD won the 2015 election – the first free polls to be held in decades.
Now, Min Aung Hlaing is widely tipped to reinvent himself as a civilian leader once a government of military allies is formed over the coming weeks.
*Name changed at interviewee’s request


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Myanmar

Myanmar’s loaded election brings win for junta allies: ‘What was the point?’

Myanmar electoral officials count ballots  at a polling station in Yangon on Sunday. Photo: EPA

A Myanmar electoral official announces the results at a polling station in Yangon on Sunday. Photo: EPA

Myanmar’s junta chief Min Aung Hlaing (right) visits a polling station in Mandalay on Sunday. Photo: Xinhua

Asean urged to rethink stance as Myanmar election risks normalising junta rule

An official of the Union Election Commission displays a ballot for counting during the second phase of the general election at a polling station in Yangon, Myanmar, on Sunday. Photo: Xinhua

Philippine Secretary of Foreign Affairs Theresa Lazaro, in her role as special envoy of the Asean chair to Myanmar, with junta leader Min Aung Hlaing on January 6. Photo: Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs

Voters arrive to cast ballots during the second phase of the general election in Yangon, Myanmar, on Sunday. Critics say the polls have been rigged by a crackdown on dissent and a ballot stacked with military allies. Photo: EPA

Myanmar’s junta chief Min Aung Hlaing stands outside a polling station during the second phase of the general election in Yangon on Sunday. The last phase of the election is scheduled for January 25. Photo: Reuters

Why Myanmar’s junta election cannot hide a collapsing economy

A vendor waits beside bottles of oil at a market in Pyin Oo Lwin, Myanmar. Inflation in the country has reached record highs of about 30 per cent over the past two years. Photo: AFP

Myanmar electoral officers count early voting ballots after closing the first phase of the general election at a polling station in the capital Naypyidaw on Sunday. Photo: EPA

A vendor waits for customers at a market area in Lashio in Myanmar’s northern Shan State on December 20. The Asian Development Bank expects the country’s growth this year to slip to minus 3 per cent. Photo: AFP

China’s state-owned oil and gas pipeline from Kyaukpyu in Myanmar to Yunnan province remains in operation. Photo: Xinhua 

Displaced residents working in an illegal poppy field in Pekon Township, on the border of Kayin State and southern Shan State. Photo: AFP

Philippine minister’s ‘premature’ Myanmar visit casts doubts over Asean’s role

A woman casts a ballot during the second phase of Myanmar’s election in Yangon on Sunday. Photo: EPA

Philippine Secretary of Foreign Affairs Maria Theresa Lazaro at an Asean meeting in Kuala Lumpur in October. Photo: EPA

Myanmar’s junta chief, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, presides over an army parade in Naypyidaw in 2021. Photo: Reuters

Asean’s foreign ministers gather for a meeting in Kuala Lumpur in October. The bloc’s Five-Point Consensus aims to restore peace in war-torn Myanmar. Photo: EPA

Myanmar votes in election expected to prolong military rule

A voter shows her inked finger after casting a ballot in Yangon, Myanmar, on Sunday. Photo: EPA

A woman shows her inked finger after voting at a polling station during the first phase of Myanmar’s general election in Yangon on Sunday. Photo: AFP

Myanmar’s junta chief Min Aung Hlaing shows his inked finger after voting at a polling station in Naypyidaw on Sunday. Photo: AFP

Voters wait outside a polling station in Naypyidaw on Sunday. Photo: AP

Why China is Myanmar’s only real hope

Vendors sort vegetables at a market in Naypyidaw on December 29, a day after the first phase of Myanmar’s general election. Photo: AFP

A drone view of a gold mine in Shan State, Myanmar, on November 7. The Kachin Independence Organisation and the United Wa State Army control key mines with the richest deposits of rare earths in northern Kachin and Shan States. Photo: Reuters

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Politics

Disenfranchised citizens and migrants dismiss the election as a meaningless exercise designed solely to validate the military’s iron grip


Disenfranchised citizens and migrants dismiss the election as a meaningless exercise designed solely to validate the military’s iron grip.


Myanmar’s loaded election brings win for junta allies: ‘What was the point?’

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Disenfranchised citizens and migrants dismiss the election as a meaningless exercise designed solely to validate the military’s iron grip

Disenfranchised citizens and migrants dismiss the election as a meaningless exercise designed solely to validate the military’s iron grip