ASEANEWS HEADLINE-POLITICS | KAWHMU, Myanmar: Myanmar election’s second phase starts
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RIGHT OF SUFFRAGE People wait in line to vote at a polling station during the second phase of Myanmar\’s general election at Kawhmu township in Yangon on Jan. 11, 2026. AFP PHOTO
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(UPDATE) KAWHMU, Myanmar — Myanmar’s junta opened polls in the second phase of elections on Sunday, Agence France–Presse (AFP) journalists said, continuing a vote democracy watchdogs say is letting the military prolong its rule in a civilian guise.
The armed forces have ruled Myanmar for most of its post-independence history, before a decade-long democratic thaw saw civilians take the reins in a burst of reform.
The military snatched back power in a 2021 coup, voiding the results of the previous election, detaining democratic figurehead Aung San Suu Kyi and plunging Myanmar into civil war.
Polls opened at 6:00 a.m. in Suu Kyi’s former constituency of Kawhmu, around 25 kilometers south of Yangon city, AFP journalists said.
After ruling by force for the past five years, the junta has pledged the three-phase election, due to end on Jan. 25, will return power to the people.
The Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) — described by many analysts as the military’s prime proxy — won nearly 90 percent of lower house seats in the first phase late last month.
With Suu Kyi sidelined and her massively popular party dissolved, democracy advocates say the vote has been rigged by a ballot stacked with military allies and a crackdown on dissent.
“I think the results lie only in the mouth of the military,” said one 50-year-old resident of Yangon, where voting also takes place on Sunday, speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity for security reasons.
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‘Little interest’
Analysts said the junta is staging the election to launder its image — thereby improving diplomatic relations, increasing foreign investment and sapping momentum from rebels.
“The junta engineered the polls to ensure victory for its proxy, entrench military domination in Myanmar, and manufacture a facade of legitimacy while violence and repression continue unabated.”
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The first phase had a turnout of around 50 percent, far below the roughly 70 percent of the 2020 vote backing Suu Kyi’s party into office.
“The people have very little interest in this election,” said the 50-year-old Yangon resident. “This election has absolutely nothing to do with escaping this suffering.”
The military justified its 2021 coup with allegations that Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) party won a landslide victory over pro-military parties in 2020 polls with massive voter fraud.
Election monitors said those claims were unfounded.
Limited electorate
Meanwhile, more than 330 people are being pursued under junta-enacted laws, including clauses punishing protest or criticism of the poll with up to a decade in prison.
More than 22,000 political prisoners are languishing in junta jails, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners advocacy group.
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In the coup’s wake, security forces put down pro-democracy protests — but activists formed ragtag guerrilla units, often fighting alongside ethnic minority armies long resistant to central rule.
Voting has been cancelled in dozens of lower house constituencies, many known battlegrounds or regions where rebels run parallel administrations beyond the junta’s reach.
While there is no official toll for Myanmar’s civil war, monitoring group Acled — which tallies media reports of violence — estimates that 90,000 people have been killed on all sides.
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