Myanmar holds last election round with army already certain to keep control over government

Описание: (25 Jan 2026)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Yangon, Myanmar - 25 January 2026
1. Election official announcing polls closing
2. Box containing ballots being opened
3. Various of votes being counted by officials
4. Various of people casting votes ++SHOT BEFORE POLLS CLOSED++
5. SOUNDBITE (Burmese) Soe Tint, voter: ++SHOT BEFORE POLLS CLOSED++
"We want the country to be peaceful and develop. In all sectors, including education. I served as a civil servant for 37 years. I am now 86 years old."
6. Tint heading to the polls ++SHOT BEFORE POLLS CLOSED++
7. SOUNDBITE (Burmese) Lae Lae Yi, voter: ++SHOT BEFORE POLLS CLOSED++
"There isn’t much hope. I’m not expecting anything at all because there is no motivation."
8. Various of people casting votes on election day ++SHOT BEFORE POLLS CLOSED++
STORYLINE:
Polls closed in Myanmar on Sunday in the final round of a three-stage general election, capping a nearly monthlong process that has already ensured the country’s military rulers and their allies will command a parliamentary majority to form a new government.

The army-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party, or USDP, had already won most of the seats contested in the first two rounds of voting.

Twenty-five percent of the seats in the upper and lower houses of the national Parliament are reserved for the military, guaranteeing it and its allies control of the legislature.

Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, who heads the current military government, is widely expected by both supporters and opponents to assume the presidency when the new Parliament meets.

Critics say the polls were neither free nor fair, and were designed to legitimize the power of the military after it ousted the elected civilian government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021.

The army's takeover triggered widespread opposition that dragged Myanmar into a civil war.

Security concerns engendered by the fighting meant voting was not held in more than one-fifth of the country’s 330 townships, another reason the process was described as neither free nor fair.

Malaysian Foreign Minister Mohamad Hasan on Tuesday said the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, of which Myanmar is a member, did not send observers and would not certify the election, citing concerns over the lack of inclusive and free participation.

Min Aung Hlaing pushed back against critics of the polls on Sunday, declaring that “the people who live in Myanmar are the ones who vote. Not those from outside."

Suu Kyi, Myanmar’s 80-year-old former leader, and her party did not participate in the polls.

She is serving a 27-year prison term on charges widely viewed as spurious and politically motivated. Her party, the National League for Democracy, won landslide victories in the 2020 and 2015 elections, but was forced to dissolve in 2023 after refusing to register under new military rules.

Other parties also refused to register or declined to run under conditions they deem unfair, while opposition groups called for a voter boycott.

A new Election Protection Law imposed harsh penalties for most public criticism of the polls, with the authorities charging more than 400 people recently for activities such as leafleting or online activity.

Voting began on Sunday at 6 a.m. and ended at 4 p.m. in 61 townships across six regions and three states, including many areas that have seen clashes in recent months.

At the polling station in Dagon township in Yangon, the country’s largest city, 86-year-old Soe Tint said he cast his ballot because he wants the country to be peaceful and develop “in all sectors, including education.”

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