Official results show the military-backed USDP winning 90% of announced lower house seats in a poll widely condemned as a sham.
YANGON: Myanmar’s pro-military party has secured a decisive lead in the first phase of junta-run elections, official results show.
The Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) won 87 of the 96 lower house seats announced so far, according to partial results from the Union Election Commission.
Six ethnic minority parties picked up the remaining nine seats.
The USDP also won 14 of the 15 regional and state constituency seats announced in this initial phase.
The military, which seized power in a 2021 coup, opened voting in the phased month-long election a week ago.
Junta leaders have pledged the poll would bring democracy, but rights advocates and Western diplomats have condemned it as a sham.
The massively popular but dissolved National League for Democracy of Aung San Suu Kyi did not appear on ballots.
Suu Kyi has been jailed since the coup, which was triggered after her party defeated the USDP by a landslide in the 2020 election.
The military and USDP alleged massive voter fraud in that poll, claims international monitors say were unfounded.
The junta has said turnout in the first phase exceeded 50% of eligible voters.
This is below the 2020 participation rate of around 70%.
Winners from six more townships in the first phase have yet to be announced.
Two more phases of voting are scheduled for January 11 and 25.
