Myanmar pro-military party claims huge lead in junta-run poll

AFP :

Myanmar’s dominant pro-military party claimed an overwhelming victory in the first phase of the elections, a senior party official told AFP, after democracy watchdogs warned the junta-run poll would entrench military rule.

The armed forces snatched power in a 2021 coup, but on Sunday opened voting in a phased month-long election they pledge will return power to the people.

“We won 82 lower house seats in townships which have finished counting, out of the total of 102,” a senior member of the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) told AFP.

The figure implies that the party — which many analysts describe as a civilian proxy of the military — took more than 80 percent of the lower house seats that were put to the vote on Sunday.

It won all eight townships in the capital Naypyidaw, the official added, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to disclose the results.