The People’s Party told DVB that it suspects errors in the counting of ballots in Kawhmu Township, Yangon Region, after voting was completed in the second round of the military’s 2025–26 elections on Sunday.
Kyaw Kyaw Htwe, a candidate for the People’s Party contesting the seat in Kawhmu for the Pyithu Hluttaw, or lower house of parliament, told DVB that the military-proxy Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP)’s candidate Aung Myo Than won Kawhmu with over 30,000 votes.
He told DVB that he only received 12,000 votes but would request the regime’s Union Election Commission (UEC) recount all ballots cast in Kawhmu, which has been held by Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy (NLD) party since by-elections in 2012. Kawhmu is located 36 miles (57 km) south of the commercial capital Yangon.
“What is happening today in Kawmhu and other National League for Democracy strongholds is not democracy. It is an attempt to rewrite the people’s will through force and fear,” Kim Aris, Aung San Suu Kyi’s son, told DVB as news of the USDP victory over rival parties became apparent, on Jan. 11.
The 80-year-old Suu Kyi has been held by the regime in Naypyidaw, which seized power in a military coup on Feb. 1, 2021. The NLD was disbanded by the UEC in 2023, which means none of its members are competing in this military-run election. All senior NLD leaders, including State Counsellor Suu Kyi and President Win Myint, remain in prison.
The UEC’s polling station workers count all paper slips produced by the electronic voting machines, which are being used for the first time in Myanmar. Calculators are then used to manually add up the tallies from each vote cast. Kyaw Kyaw Htwe believes there could be errors in the counting of ballots.
The People’s Party won one seat in the Tanintharyi Region parliament for Myeik Township after preliminary results were released by the UEC following the end of voting on Dec. 28. This projected win for the People’s Party was disputed by the USDP. Myeik is located 151 miles (243 km) south of the Tanintharyi Region capital Dawei.
The UEC has held elections in seven out of Tanintharyi’s 10 townships. The three remaining townships will hold elections in a third and final phase of voting on Jan. 25.
A candidate told DVB on the condition of anonymity that his rival USDP candidate won the Pyithu Hluttaw seat for Yangon’s Insein Township with 240 advanced votes that arrived at the polling station without Form 13-a, which is a list of voters who cast ballots in advance.
When advanced votes are cast, the ballot boxes containing the ballot papers must be handed over to the relevant polling station officials together with Form 13-a at 6 a.m. on election day, before the polling stations open, under the UEC law.
He added that all complaints from candidates during the first and second phases were filed directly to the UEC. It responded that it will improve the remaining two phases of voting at a meeting with 57 political parties in Naypyidaw on Jan. 5.
Hla Htay, the People’s Party chairperson in Yangon Region, told DVB that the advanced ballots arriving at polling stations without Form 13-a happened in another location in Insein, nine miles (15 km) northwest of Yangon.
The UEC has held polls in 28 Yangon townships during the first and second rounds of voting on Dec. 28 and Jan. 11. It has scheduled the third and final phase of elections in 17 out of Yangon’s total 45 townships on Jan. 25.
The regime Ministry of Foreign Affairs handed over all advanced votes cast by Myanmar citizens living abroad to the UEC on Dec. 18.
Advanced polls were held at Myanmar embassies in Tokyo, Japan, Dec. 1–2, in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, on Dec. 2, in New Delhi, India, Dec. 4-6, in Beijing, China, Dec. 5-6, and in Seoul, South Korea, Dec. 6-12.
Myanmar citizens inside the country, who were registered with the UEC but not at their family homes, were allowed to cast advanced ballots in certain locations from Dec. 18-27.
Sai Aik Paung, the chairperson of the Shan and Nationalities Democratic Party (SNDP), told DVB that his party’s candidate for Mongpan Township, 157 miles (252 km) east of the Shan State capital Taunggyi, lost to the USDP candidate by advanced votes counted on Jan. 11.
He added that the SNDP, also known as White Tiger Party, won in Shan’s Langkho, Mone, Kunhing, Mongkaing, and Lekhya townships after the first and second round of voting.
The military’s elections were held in 29 Shan townships. The UEC has scheduled polls in nine more during the third and final phase of voting on Jan. 25. The UEC cannot hold elections in 17 of Shan’s 55 townships due to the fact that these areas are not under regime control.
Sai Aik Paung told DVB that he filed a complaint letter directly to regime leader Senior General Min Aung Hlaing requesting a “free-and-fair” election in the second and third rounds of voting.
Htin Kyaw Aye, an independent Myanmar election analyst, told DVB that the UEC is “unlikely” to review the entire first phase due to time constraints, and will instead resolve disputes on a case-by-case basis as it moves forward with completing the three phased polls by the end of this month.
Regime spokesperson Zaw Min Tun told pro-military media on Jan. 11 that the military will convene parliament in March and form a new government in early April.
Preliminary results released by the UEC on Jan. 8 showed the USDP won 88 out of 96 seats in the Pyithu Hluttaw and 21 out of 31 seats in the Amyotha Hluttaw, or upper house of parliament.
The USDP governed Myanmar from 2010-15 under a purported transitional military regime until it lost back-to-back general elections in 2015 and 2020 to Aung San Suu Kyi’s NLD, which resulted in the 2021 military coup led by Min Aung Hlaing that ended Myanmar’s brief transition to democracy.
The UEC held two rounds of voting in a total 202 townships on Dec. 28 and Jan. 11. The third and final phase of the elections will be held in 63 townships. Polls are unable to be held in 65 townships nationwide due to ongoing conflict, while 16 townships will have polling stations in urban areas only, according to the UEC.
