Pro-military party declares victory

The dominant pro-military party has won junta-run elections, a party source told AFP yesterday, after a month-long vote that democracy watchdogs dismissed as a rebranding of army rule.

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Members of Myanmar's election commission count ballots in Yangon on Sunday.

(AFP)

The military snatched power in a 2021 coup, ending Myanmar’s experiment with civilian rule and triggering civil war, but pledged a three-phase vote, which finished on Sunday, would return power to the people.

With massively popular democratic figurehead Aung San Suu Kyi detained and her party dissolved, critics say the ballot was stacked with army allies to prolong their grip on power.

Voting was not held in areas controlled by rebel factions fighting in the civil war — another hurdle cited by those questioning the poll’s mandate.