YANGON
\nVoters trickled to Myanmar\u2019s heavily restricted polls on Sunday, with the ruling junta touting the exercise as a return to democracy, five years after it ousted the last elected government and triggered a civil war.
\nFormer civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi remains jailed, while her hugely popular party has been dissolved and not taking part.
\nCampaigners, Western diplomats and the United Nations\u2019 rights chief have all condemned the phased month-long vote, citing a ballot stacked with military allies and a stark crackdown on dissent.
\nThe pro-military Union Solidarity and Development Party is widely expected to emerge as the largest bloc, in what critics say would be a rebranding of martial rule.
\n\u201cWe guarantee it to be a free and fair election,\u201d junta chief Min Aung Hlaing told reporters after casting his ballot in the capital Naypyidaw.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s organised by the military, we can\u2019t let our name be tarnished.\u201d The Southeast Asian nation of around 50 million people is riven by civil war and there will be no voting in areas controlled by rebel factions that have risen up to challenge military rule.
\nWhile opposition factions threatened to attack the election, there were no reports of violence against polling day activities by the time voting ended at 4:00 pm (0930 GMT).
\nThe second round of polling will take place in two weeks before the third and final round on January 25, but the junta has acknowledged that elections cannot happen in almost one in five lower house constituencies.<\/p>\n
Limited turnout
\nSnaking queues of voters formed for the previous election in 2020, which the military declared void a few months later when it ousted Aung San Suu Kyi and seized power.
\nBut when a polling station near her vacant home closed on Sunday, only around 470 of its roughly 1,700 registered voters had cast ballots, an election official said \u2013 a turnout of less than 28 percent.
\nIts first voter, Bo Saw, 63, said the election \u201cwill bring the best for the country\u201d.
\n\u201cThe first priority should be restoring a safe and peaceful situation,\u201d he told AFP.
\nAt a downtown Yangon station near the gleaming Sule Pagoda \u2013 the site of huge pro-democracy protests after the 2021 coup \u2013 45-year-old Swe Maw dismissed international criticism.
\n\u201cThere are always people who like and dislike,\u201d he said at a polling station that later reported a turnout of below 37 percent.
\nThe run-up saw none of the feverish public rallies that Aung San Suu Kyi once commanded, and the junta has waged a withering pre-vote offensive to claw back territory.
\n\u201cI don\u2019t think this election will change or improve the political situation in this country,\u201d said 23-year-old Hman Thit, displaced by the post-coup conflict.
\n\u201cI think the air strikes and atrocities on our hometowns will continue,\u201d he said in a rebel-held area of Pekon township in Shan state.
\nThe military ruled Myanmar for most of its post-independence history, before a 10-year interlude saw a civilian government take the reins in a burst of optimism and reform.
\nHowever, Min Aung Hlaing snatched power in a coup, alleging widespread voter fraud, after Aung San Suu Kyi\u2019s National League for Democracy party trounced pro-military opponents in the 2020 elections.
\nThe military put down pro-democracy protests and many activists quit the cities to fight as guerrillas alongside ethnic minority armies that have long held sway in Myanmar\u2019s fringes.
\nThere is no official death toll for Myanmar\u2019s civil war and estimates vary widely, but global conflict monitoring group ACLED tallies media reports of violence and estimates that 90,000 people have been killed on all sides since the coup.
\nAung San Suu Kyi is serving a 27-year sentence on charges that rights groups dismiss as politically motivated.
\n\u201cI don\u2019t think she would consider these elections to be meaningful in any way,\u201d her son Kim Aris said.\u00ad<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
YANGON Voters trickled to Myanmar\u2019s heavily restricted polls on Sunday, with the ruling junta touting the exercise as a return to democracy, five years after it ousted the last elected government and triggered a civil war. Former civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi remains jailed, while her hugely popular party has been dissolved and not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":522886,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-522875","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n