Tropical Myanmar has experienced prolonged periods of military rule, although generals stepped back during a decade marked by civilian-led reforms. That period ended with the 2021 coup, when Aung San Suu Kyi was detained, conflict spread across the country, and a humanitarian crisis deepened.
Concerns raised over conduct of the election
The military has said the election will hand power back to the public. However, rights monitors say the period leading up to the vote has involved coercion and the suppression of dissent.
With Suu Kyi sidelined and her widely supported party dissolved, democracy advocates say the contest favours groups aligned with the military.
AFP journalists saw voting begin in Mandalay, the country’s second-largest city, where 53-year-old teacher Zaw Ko Ko Myint cast his ballot at a high school around dawn.
“Although I do not expect much, we want to see a better country,” he told AFP. “I feel relieved after voting, as if I fulfilled my duty.”
Polling was also observed in Yangon’s Hlaingthaya township, an area that witnessed a deadly crackdown on anti-coup protests five years ago.
"I don't expect anything from this election," a 34-year-old Yangon resident told AFP earlier, requesting anonymity for security reasons. "Things will just keep dragging on."
The Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) -- packed with retired officers and described by analysts as a military puppet -- won more than 85 per cent of elected lower house seats and two-thirds of those in the upper house in the poll's first two phases.
A military-drafted constitution also reserves a quarter of both houses for the armed forces.
The combined parliament will pick the president, and junta chief Min Aung Hlaing has not ruled out taking the role.
Analysts say the military is stage-managing the poll to give its rule a veneer of civilian legitimacy.
The anonymous Yangon resident, feeling pressure to participate, pledged to cast her ballot for "any party except the USDP".
"I know what the final result will be, but I want to mess things up a little with my vote," she said.
Official results are expected late this week, but the USDP could claim victory as soon as Monday.
Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party thrashed it in the last elections in 2020, before the military seized power on February 1, 2021, making unfounded allegations of widespread vote-rigging.
The 80-year-old Nobel Peace Prize laureate remains detained incommunicado at an unknown location on charges rights monitors dismiss as politically motivated.
Not safe at all
The military has long presented itself as the only force guarding restive Myanmar from rupture and ruin.
But its putsch tipped the country into full-blown civil war, with pro-democracy guerrillas fighting the junta alongside a kaleidoscope of ethnic minority armies which have long held sway in the fringes.
Air strikes are frequent in some regions, others enjoy relative peace, while some zones are blockaded, haunted by the spectre of starvation.
Polling was called off in one in five lower house constituencies, but some frontline locations were set to vote Sunday.
"Candidates still haven't held any campaigning because of security," complained one parliamentary candidate, speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons.
"It's not safe at all to travel," they said, estimating only one in 10 polling stations would be able to open in their constituency.
There is no official death toll for Myanmar's civil war.
But monitoring group ACLED, which tallies media reports of violence, estimates more than 90,000 have been killed on all sides.
Meanwhile, more than 400 people have been pursued for prosecution under stark new junta-tailored legislation forbidding "disruption" of the election.
It punishes protest or criticism with up to a decade in prison, and arrests have been made for as little as posting a "heart" emoji on Facebook posts criticising the polls.
Turnout in the first and second phases of the vote were just over 50 per cent, official figures say, compared to roughly 70 per cent in 2020.
(With agency nputs)
