Sawt Falasteen - Myanmar pro-military party declares victory in junta-run polls

While the military has said the election will return power to the people, popular democratic figurehead Aung San Suu Kyi remains detained since the coup and her party has been dissolved, while critics say the ballot was stacked with army allies.

"We won a majority already," a senior official from the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to share preliminary results.

"We are in the position to form a new government," they said, after the vote's third and final phase took place on Sunday. "As we won in the election, we will move forward."

Many analysts describe the USDP as a civilian proxy of the military which seized power in a 2021 coup, toppling the democratic government of Suu Kyi.

Voting was not held in huge patches of the country controlled by rebel factions fighting in the civil war, triggered by the coup -- another hurdle cited by those questioning the poll's mandate.

Official results are expected later this week.

Five years on from the coup, analysts say the military stage-managed the poll to give its rule a veneer of civilian legitimacy.

Touring Mandalay city polling stations in civilian dress on Sunday, junta chief Min Aung Hlaing declined to rule out serving as the new government's president.

The position will be elected by a house majority of MPs after parliament convenes in March.

"While the election results within Myanmar have never been in doubt, the election result that matters most is the response of the international community," UN expert Tom Andrews said last week.

"International acceptance of this fraudulent exercise would set back the clock on genuine resolution to this crisis."

Parties that won 90 percent of seats in 2020 did not appear on the ballot this time, according to the Asian Network for Free Elections.

In junta-held territory, dissent has been purged, with new laws punishing protest or criticism of the election with up to a decade in prison.

More than 22,000 people are languishing in junta jails, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners monitoring group.

F.AbuShamala--SF-PST