Rival Party Leaders Defeated or Barred as Junta Proxy USDP Sweeps Myanmar Election

All rival party leaders who competed against the military proxy Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) in Myanmar’s election were either defeated or barred, as the USDP swept to victory in a tightly controlled vote whose outcome was never in doubt.

The three-phase election across 263 townships culminated on Sunday without the country’s most popular democratic party, the National League for Democracy (NLD)—whose leaders including Nobel laureate Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and President U Win Myint languish in jail. The NLD was previously dissolved by the junta’s poll body along with dozens of other major opposition parties.

Six parties participated in the national poll—the USDP, the National Unity Party (NUP), People’s Pioneer Party (PPP), People’s Party (PP), Shan and Ethnic Democratic Party (SNDP), and Myanmar Farmers’ Development Party (MFDP)—while the remaining 51 parties ran in regional elections.