Voting in Myanmar has ended with the military-backed party expected to win a landslide victory after a month-long election that has been widely derided as a sham designed to cement the army’s grip on power.
The junta leader, Min Aung Hlaing, has rejected criticism of the vote, saying it has the support of the public and presenting it as a return to democracy and stability.
The election is happening almost five years after the military seized power in a coup, ousting the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi and triggering a fierce conflict that continues to rage across the country. The 80-year-old has been detained since she was ousted, and her party, the National League for Democracy, which won sweeping victories in previous votes, has been banned.
“Whether the international community recognises this or not, we don’t understand their perspective. The people’s vote is the recognition we need,” Min Aung Hlaing told reporters on Sunday, according to video broadcast on state TV.
The UN, human rights experts, the UK, Australia, and the EU’s top rights official have rejected the election, saying it lacks legitimacy. China, a key military ally, is backing the vote, which it considers the best path to stability.
In Mandalay, Myanmar’s second most populous city, voters were reluctant to be interviewed, saying it was not safe to speak publicly about politics. “We miss our former government, we don’t want this military government,” said a man who was voting on Sunday in the city. He could not speak further, he added: “We fear for our security.”
The military has arrested tens of thousands of political prisoners since the coup, targeting anyone suspected of opposing its rule. A new election protection law was also enacted in July, under which any criticism of the vote can lead to a minimum sentence of three years in prison, and even the death penalty.
Tom Andrews, the UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, said the vote had been orchestrated by the military to deliver a landslide for its political proxy, the Union Solidarity and Development party (USDP).
“It took no chances, banning credible opposition parties, jailing popular political figures, muzzling the press, crushing fundamental freedoms, and using fear and coercion to drive a reluctant electorate to the polls,” Andrews said.
“The junta is banking on the world’s fatigue, hoping that the international community will accept military rule dressed up in civilian clothing,” he added. “Governments must not allow that to happen.”
Fighting has continued in many areas throughout the election period. Just days ahead of voting, 21 people were killed and 28 injured in a military airstrike on a village where displaced people from the northern township of Bhamo were sheltering in Kachin state, Associated Press reported.
The election has taken place in three stages, with the first phase held in December and a second phase held earlier in January. In total, 57 parties are competing, though only six are doing so nationwide, and analysts say none of the parties on the ballot paper are perceived as offering a meaningful opposition to the military. The USDP is running by far the largest number of candidates, and has secured a majority of seats in previous rounds, winning 193 of 209 seats in the lower house and 52 of 78 seats in the upper house.
According to election monitoring group Anfrel, 57% of the parties that ran in the 2020 general election no longer exist, even though they received more than 70% of votes and 90% of seats.
Malaysia has said the regional bloc, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), will not endorse the poll or send observers. However, it is unclear if individual member states will increase their engagement with Myanmar’s leadership after the vote.
Turnout has been low, at 55%, compared with about 70% in the 2020 election, when the public queued at polling stations despite the pandemic, and the historic 2015 vote that swept Aung San Suu Kyi to power. The pre-election period has also lacked the large rallies and excitement of previous votes.
Voting took place in populous cities such as Mandalay and Yangon on Sunday, but analysts estimate about a third of the country’s territory has been excluded from the process because it is under the control of anti-junta groups or gripped by fighting.
The military coup in 2021, which marked an abrupt end to the country’s democratic transition, triggered a escalating conflict as civilians began to take up arms to fight against the junta. The army is battling a diverse patchwork of opposition groups, in what Acled, which tracks conflicts globally, has described as “the most fragmented conflict in the world”.
Su Mon, Acled’s senior analyst for Asia Pacific, said that while the military had sought to portray elections as a managed exit from political crisis and conflict, its counter-offensives had only increased in the run-up to the vote. “In an effort to regain territory, the military continued its repeated airstrikes on civilian areas throughout 2025, leading to the highest number of airstrikes and associated fatalities in any single year since 2021,” she said.
Estimates of the death toll from Myanmar’s post-coup conflict vary, though Acled has recorded 92,000 deaths since 2021. The monitoring group places Myanmar second on its conflict index, which measures conflicts based on their deadliness, danger to civilians, geographic diffusion and the number of armed groups involved.
