In Myanmar, the first general election will be held 4 years and 10 months after the military regime seized power in a coup.
According to the BBC and others, on the 28th (local time), the first round of voting in the general election began simultaneously in 102 of the country's 330 townships (administrative districts). The second and third rounds are set to follow on Jan. 11 next year in 100 places and on the 25th of the same month in 63 places. However, voting in the remaining 65 places controlled by rebel forces is not scheduled at this time.
Through this general election, 168 of the 224 upper house seats and 330 of the 440 lower house seats will be elected. The remaining 166 seats, which are 25% of each chamber, are allocated to active-duty soldiers appointed by the commander-in-chief. After the general election ends, the president is chosen by an indirect parliamentary vote within 60 days.
A total of 4,963 people registered as candidates for the general election, and among them, 1,018 candidates from the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), which is backed by the military regime, account for more than 20% of the total. Because of this, there is speculation that the USDP will win by a landslide and that Commander-in-Chief Min Aung Hlaing, the current head of the military regime, is highly likely to assume the presidency.
The National League for Democracy (NLD), led by State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi, swept more than 80% of the elected seats in the 2020 general election before the coup, but it has been dissolved since the coup. Suu Kyi was sentenced to 27 years in prison on charges including corruption and is currently serving her term with all outside contact strictly cut off.
The Myanmar junta said in a statement on the 27th, a day before the general election, that it would lift the curfew that had been in effect in the largest city, Yangon. Yangon, Myanmar's No. 1 economic city with a population of 7 million, is home to the Aung San Mausoleum, the site of the "Aung San Mausoleum terror attack."
The BBC said, "Even in areas where voting is taking place, not all eligible voters may take part, making it difficult to predict the actual turnout," adding, "The West, including the United Kingdom and the European Parliament, dismissed this vote as rigged."
Earlier, Volker Türk, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, said in a statement on the 24th, "The Myanmar military authorities must stop forcing people to vote by deploying brutal violence," and urged, "They must also stop arresting people for expressing dissenting views."