Overview
- Phase-one polls opened on December 28 in the first nationwide vote since the 2021 coup, with additional rounds set for January 11 and January 25 and results expected by late January.
- Major pro-democracy forces have been excluded, with the NLD dissolved and Aung San Suu Kyi still in detention.
- Because of ongoing fighting, voting is planned in about 265 of Myanmar’s 330 townships in total, and only 102 participated in the opening phase.
- The military is working to boost turnout and showcase legitimacy with heavy security and newly introduced electronic voting at some sites, and it has invited observers from Belarus, Kazakhstan and Thailand after ASEAN declined a mission.
- With 166 of 664 parliamentary seats reserved for the military and some constituencies uncontested, the army-aligned USDP is positioned to benefit as the NUG denounces the exercise as a show election.