Residents in Yangon Region face ‘pressure’ to vote in phase two of Myanmar elections

Residents of Kawhmu Township, located 36 miles (57 km) south of the commercial capital Yangon, told DVB that they faced “pressure” to vote during the second phase of military-run elections on Sunday.

“[Officials] told us to return home to vote,” a Kawhmu resident working in Yangon told DVB on the condition of anonymity. Kawhmu is the seat held by jailed State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy (NLD) party in Myanmar’s Pyithu Hluttaw, or lower house of parliament, since by-elections in 2012.

Aung San Suu Kyi’s NLD won back-to-back landslide victories in the 2015 and 2020 general elections but she was thrown into prison and her party was ousted from government in the military coup led by Senior General Min Aung Hlaing on Feb. 1, 2021.

The NLD was then disbanded by the military’s Union Election Commission (UEC) in 2023 for not re-registering despite all senior NLD leaders, including Aung San Suu Kyi and President Win Myint, being held in prison and party members having fled underground or into exile to avoid arrest by the military.