Residents of Kawhmu Township, located 36 miles (57 km) south of the commercial capital Yangon, told DVB that they faced “pressure” to vote during the second phase of military-run elections on Sunday.
“[Officials] told us to return home to vote,” a Kawhmu resident working in Yangon told DVB on the condition of anonymity. Kawhmu is the seat held by jailed State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy (NLD) party in Myanmar’s Pyithu Hluttaw, or lower house of parliament, since by-elections in 2012.
Aung San Suu Kyi’s NLD won back-to-back landslide victories in the 2015 and 2020 general elections but she was thrown into prison and her party was ousted from government in the military coup led by Senior General Min Aung Hlaing on Feb. 1, 2021.
The NLD was then disbanded by the military’s Union Election Commission (UEC) in 2023 for not re-registering despite all senior NLD leaders, including Aung San Suu Kyi and President Win Myint, being held in prison and party members having fled underground or into exile to avoid arrest by the military.
“I imagine Min Aung Hlaing has his own agenda where it comes to my mother,” Aung San Suu Kyi’s son Kim Aris told Reuters in an interview on Dec. 15. “She’s 80 years old, she’s got ongoing health issues, nobody has seen her in over two years, she hasn’t been allowed contact with her legal team, never mind her family,” added Aris.
The second phase of voting in the military-run elections, called a “sham” by the U.N. and several western countries, is taking place in 100 of Myanmar’s 330 townships. The first round of voting in 102 townships was completed on Dec. 28.
“The results of these elections, either the first phase or successive ones, we do not consider to be credible, representative or meaningful. They’re not a step toward a democratic transition or return to peace. This is very much a process managed by the military for its own benefit,” Amael Vier, an electoral analyst at the Asian Network for Free Elections (ANFREL), told DVB.
Preliminary results released by the UEC on Jan. 8 showed the military-proxy Union Solidarity and Development Party (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 is on track for a landslide victory, which is hardly a surprise given the extent to which the playing field was tilted in its favour. This included the removal of any serious rivals and a set of laws designed to stifle opposition to the polls,” Richard Horsey, the senior Myanmar adviser for International Crisis Group, told Reuters.
Over 1.5 million eligible voters are expected to cast their ballots in 16 Yangon townships, including Bahan, Pabedan, Latha, North Dagon, Dawbon, Pazundaung, Hlaing, Shwepyitha, Htantabin, Hlegu, South Okkalapa, Kyimyindaing, Insein, Kungyangon, Kawhmu, and Coco Islands, also known as Cocokyun, on Jan. 11.
Yangon residents told DVB that security has been heightened as regime leader Min Aung Hlaing inspected polling stations in Insein, Hlaing and Latha townships as voting got underway in phase two of the military-run elections.
Htin Kyaw Aye, an independent Myanmar election analyst, told DVB that he believes the regime leader’s visit to polling stations in Yangon was an “improper” effort to sway voters to cast ballots for the USDP.
Yangon is a longtime NLD stronghold but without the party on the ballot, many voters are unsure of which candidates to vote for.
A resident in Shwepyitha Township, 14 miles (22 km) north of Yangon, told DVB that regime administration officials traveling in military convoys on Jan. 10 – one day before voting resumed in Myanmar – used loudspeakers to demand residents vote in the second round.
Yanghee Lee, a member of the Special Advisory Council for Myanmar (SAC-M), said in a statement on Jan. 10 that citizens must reject the “fake” elections and called on the international community, including the 11-member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), to reject the election results.
The UEC claimed that over six of the 11 million eligible voters cast their ballots on Dec. 28. But independent election analysts highlighted that this was significantly lower than the 70 per cent turnout seen in the 2015 and 2020 elections, won overwhelmingly by the NLD.
“In some systems of elections, there’s the option that allows the voter to [select] ‘none of the above.’ In this election that option is not possible. Any voter who [is] forced inside the polling station, has to choose one option on the ballot,” Htin Kyaw Aye told DVB, referring to the new electronic voting machines being used by the UEC for the first time in Myanmar.
The UEC is unable to hold its polls in 65 townships located in Kachin State, as well as Sagaing and Magway regions, due to “a lack of conditions to hold free-and-fair elections.” A third and final phase of voting in Myanmar is scheduled to take place in 63 townships on Jan. 25.
