Mon Dec 29 18:04:25 UTC 2025: Here’s a summary of the text and a news article rewrite:

Summary:

Myanmar’s pro-military Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) has claimed a landslide victory in the first phase of the country’s elections. International observers and democracy watchdogs are highly critical, citing a crackdown on dissent, a candidate list favorable to the military, and widespread concerns about coercion and rigged voting. The election, conducted by the military junta that seized power in 2021, is seen by many as a way to entrench military rule despite promises to return power to a civilian government. Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD), which won the last election, was dissolved and barred from participating. The ongoing civil war, triggered by the coup, has further complicated the situation, preventing voting in many areas.

News Article:

Myanmar’s Pro-Military Party Claims Victory in Contested Election

Yangon, Myanmar – December 29, 2025 – The Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), a political party backed by Myanmar’s military, has declared a sweeping victory in the first phase of national elections, a senior party official told AFP. The election, orchestrated by the junta that seized power in a 2021 coup, has been widely condemned by international observers and democracy advocates as a sham designed to solidify military rule.

According to the USDP, they secured 82 out of 102 lower house seats contested in the initial round of voting on Sunday, December 28th. The claim suggests the party secured over 80% of the seats up for grabs and that the USDP won all eight townships in the capital Naypyidaw.

Critics point to the dissolution of Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD), the winner of the 2020 elections, and the ongoing civil war as evidence that the election is neither free nor fair. Suu Kyi herself has been detained since the coup.

“It makes sense that the USDP would dominate,” Morgan Michaels, a research fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, told AFP. “The election is not credible. They rig it ahead of time by banning different parties, making sure that certain people don’t turn up to vote, or they do turn up to vote under threat of coercion to vote a certain way.”

Many residents share the sentiment of distrust. “My view on the election is clear: I don’t trust it at all,” said Yangon resident Min Khant. “We have been living under a dictatorship. Even if they do hold elections, I don’t think anything good will come of them because they always lie.”

Despite the criticism, military chief Min Aung Hlaing has promised a “free and fair election,” asserting that the military can be trusted to return power to a civilian-led government.

Official results have yet to be released by the Union Election Commission. The next phases of the election are scheduled for January 11 and 25. The military has conceded that voting cannot take place in nearly one-fifth of lower house constituencies due to the ongoing conflict. The elections are seen by many as a key test to the country’s trajectory, while others believe it will not lead to any change.

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