Weak turnout seen in Myanmar's phased election, first since 2021 coup

Under the shadow of civil war and questions over the poll's credibility, the initial round of Myanmar's phased general election closed on Sunday, with signs of low voter turnout for the first polls since a military coup in 2021.

The junta, having crushed pro-democracy protests after the coup and sparked a nationwide rebellion, said the vote would bring political stability to the impoverished Southeast Asian nation, despite international condemnation of the exercise.

The United Nations, some Western countries and human rights groups have said the vote is not free, fair or credible, given that anti-junta political parties are out of the running and it is illegal to criticise the polls.

Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, deposed by the military months after her National League for Democracy won a general election landslide in 2020, remains in detention and the party she led to power has been dissolved.

MILITARY-BACKED PARTY SEEN AS FRONTRUNNER

The military-aligned Union Solidarity and Development Party, led by retired generals and fielding one-fifth of all candidates against severely diminished competition, is set to return to power, said Lalita Hanwong, a lecturer and Myanmar expert at Thailand's Kasetsart University.

"The junta's election is designed to prolong the military's power of slavery over people," she said. "And USDP and other allied parties with the military will join forces to form the next government."

In the lacklustre canvassing ahead of the polls, the USDP was the most visible. Founded in 2010, the year it won an election boycotted by the opposition, the party ran the country in concert with its military backers until 2015, when it was swept away by Suu Kyi's NLD.

VOTER TURNOUT APPEARS LOWER

Voter turnout in Sunday's polls appeared much lower than in the 2020 election, 10 residents of cities spread across Myanmar said.

Further rounds of voting will be held on January 11 and January 25, covering 265 of Myanmar's 330 townships, although the junta does not have complete control of all those areas.

Armed groups formed in the wake of the coup and long-established ethnic armies are fighting the military across swathes of the country, displacing some 3.6 million people and creating one of Asia's worst humanitarian crises.

A date for the final election result has not been declared.

Dressed in civilian clothes, junta chief Min Aung Hlaing voted in the heavily guarded capital city of Naypyitaw, then held up an ink-soaked little finger, smiling widely, footage on state media MRTV showed. Voters must dip a finger into indelible ink after casting a ballot to ensure they do not vote more than once.

Asked by reporters if he would like to become the country's president, an office that analysts say he has ambitions for, the general said he was not the leader of any political party.

"When the parliament convenes, there is a process for electing the president," he said.

UN ENVOY REJECTS VOTE, JUNTA SEES 'BETTER FUTURE'

The junta's attempt to establish a stable administration in the midst of war is fraught with risk, and broad foreign recognition is unlikely for any military-controlled government with a civilian veneer, according to analysts.

Tom Andrews, the UN special envoy for human rights in Myanmar, said on Sunday the election was not a pathway out of the country's crisis and must be strongly rejected.

Zaw Min Tun, a junta spokesperson, acknowledged international criticism of the vote.

"However, from this election, there will be political stability," he told reporters after voting in Naypyitaw. "We believe there will be a better future."

Nevertheless, Myanmar's voters did not come out in numbers close to the previous election conducted under COVID-19 restrictions, including in the commercial capital of Yangon and the central city of Mandalay, residents said.

The junta's legal framework for the election has no minimum voter turnout requirement, said the Asian Network for Free Elections poll monitoring group.

Turnout was about 70% in Myanmar's 2020 and 2015 general elections, according to the US-based nonprofit International Foundation for Electoral Systems.

There has been none of the energy and excitement of previous election campaigns, although several residents in Myanmar's largest cities who spoke to Reuters did not report any coercion by the military administration to push people to vote.

A handful of polling booths in Yangon, some of them near areas housing military families, had dozens of voters queued up around midday, but others were largely empty, according to two residents of the sprawling metropolis.

"It isn't as loud and enthusiastic as it was back in 2020," said a Mandalay resident, asking not to be named because of security concerns.

The streets of Hakha, capital of the northern state of Chin, where fighting rages on, were empty after a local rebel group told residents to boycott the vote, two residents said.

"People from my quarter, none of us went to vote," said one of them, a 63-year-old man. "We are not interested in the election."