Myanmar holds final round of military-run election, junta ally set to win
The army-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party has already won most of the seats contested in the first two rounds of voting.
Myanmar has opened the final round of its month-long election, with the dominant pro-military party on course for a landslide in a junta-run vote critics say will prolong the army's grip on power.
Critics say the polls are neither free nor fair, and that they are designed to legitimise the power of the military after it ousted the elected civilian government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021.
The army-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party has already won most of the seats contested in the first two rounds of voting.
Twenty-five percent of the seats in the upper and lower houses of the national Parliament are reserved for the military, guaranteeing it and its allies control of the legislature.
The USDP, which was formed in 2010 and governed the country for five years following the end of a previous military government, is chaired by a retired brigadier general and packed with other former high-ranking officers.
Myanmar's military, which has ruled the country for five of the past six decades, does not appear to have any real intention of withdrawing from its political leadership role.
"Regardless of how successive governments may change over time, Tatmadaw remains a steadfast institution that will continue to shoulder the responsibilities of national defence and security," said junta leader Min Aung Hlaing last week, referring to the Burmese term for the military.