Myanmar’s pro‑junta party has declared victory in election widely condemned by the international community as a sham exercise. The military has ruled the country since 2021 when it toppled the democratic government, plunging Myanmar into a civil war that continues to this day.
Myanmar’s dominant pro-junta party has won the election in the country, a party source told AFP on Monday.
“We won a majority already,” a senior official from the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) said on condition of anonymity. “We are in the position to form a new government. As we won in the election, we will move forward.”
Myanmar’s military regime
held the election in some parts of the country in three phases in December and January. The international community has widely condemned the election as a sham exercise because of the ongoing civil war and absence of any opposition parties.
Tom Andrews, the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Myanmar, previously said the junta “engineered the polls to ensure victory for its proxy, entrench military domination, and manufacture a facade of legitimacy while violence and repression continue unabated”.
Andrew further said that it should surprise no one that the military-backed party has claimed a landslide victory.
The USDP is widely considered to be a civilian proxy of the military and the election is seen as an attempt to rebrand the military rule with no real change in decision-making as the military would continue to pull the strings.
Myanmar’s military has ruled the country since 2021 when it toppled the democratic government Aung San Suu Kyi, plunging the country into a civil war that continues to this day. Large swathes of the country continue to
either remain contested or outside of the junta’s control.
The United Nations (UN) has previously said that no voting was held in at least 65 townships and thousands of wards and village tracts that were not under the military’s occupation — further eroding the election’s credibility.
The junta has said that these elections will return power to the people, but Suu Kyi remains detained and her massively popular party has been dissolved, eroding the credibility of the exercise. Andrew, the UN rapporteur, has dubbed the election a “facade”.
Andrew described the election as a “junta-orchestrated sham” designed to entrench military rule rather than reflect the will of the people.
“By all measures, this is not a free, fair nor legitimate election. It is a theatrical performance that has exerted enormous pressure on the people of Myanmar to participate in what has been designed to dupe the international community,” said Andrews.
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