Sawt Falasteen - Myanmar pro-military party wins first phase of junta-run election: official results

The military staged a 2021 coup that ousted the democratic government of Aung San Suu Kyi, but is overseeing a month-long phased election it pledges will return power to the people.

Western diplomats and democracy advocates dismiss the poll as a ploy to rebrand military rule, citing Suu Kyi's jailing, her party's dissolution, a crackdown on dissenters and a ballot stacked with military allies.

The pro-military Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) won 89 of 102 lower house seats included in the first phase, according to an AFP tally of official results released from Friday to Monday.

The USDP win equates to more than 87 percent of lower house seats included in the first phase of voting on December 28 -- the remainder mostly won by a smattering of parties representing ethnic minorities.

Many analysts and democracy watchdogs describe the USDP as a proxy of the military, citing the large numbers of retired officers serving in senior positions.

Overall results are due after the vote's third and final phase scheduled for January 25.

Regardless of the vote, a quarter of lower house seats and key cabinet positions will be reserved for members of the armed forces under the terms of the country's military-drafted constitution.

The USDP was trounced by Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) party in the last elections in 2020 before the military overturned the vote, alleging widespread fraud and staging a coup.

Suu Kyi, 80, remains jailed incommunicado and the NLD is not appearing on ballots.

The military coup sparked a civil war as pro-democracy protesters formed guerrilla units to fight alongside ethnic minority armed groups which have long resisted central rule.

Rebel factions have pledged to block the vote from the enclaves they control, and the junta has admitted the vote cannot be held nationwide, but is waging offensives in a bid to claw back ground.

H.Nasr--SF-PST