Report finds Myanmar junta election in ethnic areas marked by exclusion and military dominance

Mizzima

The three rounds of junta-organised elections held in Myanmar’s ethnic minority areas were marked by widespread voter exclusion, limited territorial reach, and structural advantages for the military-backed party, according to a report released by Burma News International (BNI) on 6 April.

The report said the 2025–2026 election, held in three phases, was conducted in a “highly constrained political and territorial environment”. Overwhelmingly favouring the military-aligned Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), it has easily secured about 72 percent of seats nationwide.

Ethnic parties, despite fielding candidates across multiple regions, won just over 15 percent of seats, reflecting what the report described as a lack of meaningful political competition.

A key finding was the sharp contraction of the electorate. Eligible voters fell from around 37–38 million in 2020 to just over 24 million. More than 13 million people were effectively excluded due to displacement, insecurity, and administrative restrictions.

The report highlighted particularly severe exclusion in ethnic states, where large areas were unable to participate in voting. In Chin State, elections were held in only two of nine townships, while in Rakhine State, voting took place in just three of 17 townships, often with further exclusions at the village level.

Nationwide, voting was conducted in 263 townships, but could not be held in 67 others due to conflict and resistance control. Even within areas where elections were officially organised, polling was absent in hundreds of wards and thousands of village tracts, underscoring what the report described as a “territorially selective” process.

The BNI report concluded that the election functioned less as a competitive democratic exercise and more as an administrative mechanism to consolidate military authority. It pointed to low voter turnout, widespread legal restrictions on opposition parties, and the dominance of advance voting as factors undermining credibility.

Despite the formal conduct of polling, the resulting political system faces a “significant legitimacy deficit”, the report said, arguing that the process failed to reflect the will of Myanmar’s population.

The findings add to mounting criticism of the junta’s electoral roadmap, as conflict and resistance continue to shape political conditions across large parts of the country.