Myanmar junta says first phase voter turnout topped 50%

YANGON - Myanmar's military has said turnout in the first phase of the country's junta-run elections exceeded 50 percent of eligible voters, a far cry from the participation rate of the last poll, which was voided by a coup.

The military grabbed power in a 2021 putsch that triggered civil war, and on Sunday, opened voting in a phased month-long election they pledged would return power to the people.

Rights advocates and Western diplomats, however, condemned the vote, citing a crackdown on dissent and a candidate list stacked with military allies likely to prolong the armed forces' rule.

Myanmar's dominant pro-military Union Solidarity and Development Party claimed an overwhelming victory in the first phase this week, while the junta accused rebels of launching attacks on poll sites and government buildings over the weekend.

Junta spokesman Zaw Min Tun said in a recorded message that 52 per cent of the more than 11.6 million people eligible to vote in phase one had cast their ballots, or over six million voters.

"Even in democratic countries, they do not have more than 50 per cent voter turnout,"Zaw Min Tun said in the video shared with journalists late Tuesday.

"This successful election is not the victory of our government. It's the victory of our country and people."

The military ruled Myanmar for most of its post-independence history, before a 10-year interlude saw a civilian government take the reins.

However, after Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party trounced pro-military opponents in the last elections in 2020, junta chief Min Aung Hlaing snatched power in a coup, alleging widespread voter fraud.

The turnout rate in the 2020 vote was around 70 percent.

But the droves of young people who queued to cast ballots in past elections were conspicuous by their absence from Sunday's poll.

Legions have left the war-ravaged country since the military seized power, including many men of conscription age -- up to 35 -- or youngsters seeking better livelihoods abroad.

And some of those still in the country were not particularly eager to take part in the vote, which international rights campaigners have dismissed as a sham intended to rebrand military rule.