Final round of Myanmar vote opens

Election set to seal junta ally's victory

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A voter inks her finger after casting her ballot at a polling station during the third and final phase of Myanmar's general election yesterday.

(AFP)

Myanmar opened the final round of its month-long election yesterday, with the dominant pro-military party on course for a landslide in a junta-run vote critics say will prolong the army's grip on power.

The Southeast Asian nation has a long history of military rule, but the generals took a back seat for a decade of civilian-led reforms.

That ended in a 2021 military coup when democratic figurehead Aung San Suu Kyi was detained, civil war broke out, and the country descended into humanitarian crisis.

The election's third and final phase opened in dozens of constituencies across the country at 6am yesterday, just a week shy of the coup’s fiveyear anniversary.

The military pledges the election will return power to the people but with Suu Kyi sidelined and her hugely popular party dissolved, democracy advocates say the ballot is stacked with military allies.