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YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — Voters went to the polls Sunday for the initial phase of Myanmar ’s first general election in five years, held under the supervision of its military government while a civil war rages throughout much of the country.

Final results will not be known until after two more rounds of voting are completed later in January. It is widely expected that Min Aung Hlaing, the general who has ruled the country with an iron hand since an army takeover in 2021, will then assume the presidency.

The military government has presented the vote as a return to electoral democracy, but its bid for legitimacy is marred by bans on formerly popular opposition parties and reports that soldiers have used threats to force voters to participate.

While more than 4,800 candidates from 57 parties are competing for seats in national and regional legislatures, only six are competing nationwide with the possibility to gain political clout in Parliament. The well-organized and funded Union Solidarity and Development Party, with its support from the military, is by far the strongest contender.

Voting is taking place in three phases, with Sunday’s first round being held in 102 of Myanmar’s 330 townships. The second phase will take place Jan. 11, and the third on Jan. 25. Final results are expected to be announced by February.

Critics charge that the election is designed to add a facade of legitimacy to military rule that began when the military ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021. It blocked her National League for Democracy party from serving a second term despite winning a landslide victory in the 2020 election.

They argue that the results will lack legitimacy due to the exclusion of major parties and limits on freedom of speech and an atmosphere of repression.

The expected victory of the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party makes the nominal transition to civilian rule a chimera, say opponents of military rule and independent analysts.

“An election organized by a junta that continues to bomb civilians, jail political leaders, and criminalize all forms of dissent is not an election — it is a theater of the absurd performed at gunpoint,” Tom Andrews, the U.N.-appointed human rights expert for Myanmar, posted on X.

However, holding the election may provide an excuse for neighbors like China, India and Thailand to continue their support, claiming the election promotes stability. Western nations have maintained sanctions against Myanmar’s ruling generals due to their anti-democratic actions and the brutal war against their opponents.

Voters on Saturday expressed mixed feelings.

Khin Marlar, 51, who voted at a polling station in Yangon’s Kyauktada township, said she felt she needed to vote because she hoped that peace would follow afterward. She explained that she had fled her village in the town of Thaungta in the central Mandalay region due to the fighting.

“I am voting with the feeling that I will go back to my village when it is peaceful,” she told The Associated Press.

A resident of southern Mon state, who asked to be identified only by her first name, Khin, for fear of arrest by the military, told The Associated Press she felt compelled to go to a polling station because of pressure from local authorities.

“I have to go and vote even though I don’t want to, because soldiers showed up with guns to our village to pressure us yesterday,” Khin said. There were reports ahead of the voting from independent media and rights groups that officials and the military used such threats to compel people to vote.

Suu Kyi, Myanmar’s 80-year-old former leader, and her party are not participating in the polls. She is serving a 27-year prison term on charges widely viewed as spurious and politically motivated. Her party, the National League for Democracy, was dissolved in 2023 after refusing to register under new military rules.

Other parties also refused to register or declined to run under conditions they deem unfair, and opposition groups have called for a voter boycott.

Amael Vier, an analyst for the Asian Network for Free Elections, noted a lack of genuine choice, pointing out that 73% of voters in 2020 cast ballots for parties that no longer exist.

Mobilizing opposition is difficult under the military’s repression. According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, more than 22,000 people are currently detained for political offenses, and over 7,600 civilians have been killed by security forces since they seized power in 2021.

Armed resistance arose after the army used lethal force to crush non-violent protests against its 2021 takeover. The ensuing civil war has left more than 3.6 million people displaced, according to the U.N.

A new Election Protection Law imposes harsh penalties and restrictions for virtually all public criticism of the polls.

In these circumstances, both the military and its opponents believe power is likely to remain with Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, who led the 2021 seizure of power.

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Associated Press writer Peck reported from Bangkok.

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Dec 28 (Reuters) – Russia opposes Taiwan’s independence in any form and considers the island an inseparable part of China, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in remarks published on Sunday.

In an interview with Russia’s TASS state news agency, Lavrov also urged Japan to “think carefully” about what he described as a course towards militarisation”.

(Reporting by Lidia Kelly in Melbourne; Editing by William Mallard)

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Dec 28 (Reuters) – Overshadowed by civil war and doubts about the credibility of the polls, voters in Myanmar were casting their ballots in a general election starting on Sunday, the first since a military coup toppled the last civilian government in 2021.

The junta that has since ruled Myanmar says the vote is a chance for a fresh start politically and economically for the impoverished Southeast Asian nation.

But the election has been derided by critics – including the United Nations, some Western countries and human rights groups – as an exercise that is not free, fair or credible, with anti-junta political parties not competing.

Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, deposed by the military months after her National League for Democracy won the last general election by a landslide in 2020, remains in detention, and the political party she led to power has been dissolved.

PARLIAMENT WILL PICK PRESIDENT, JUNTA CHIEF SAYS

Soon after polls opened at 6 a.m. (2330 GMT), voters began trickling into some polling booths in the country’s largest cities of Yangon and Mandalay, according to a witness and local media.

Dressed in civilian clothes, junta chief Min Aung Hlaing voted in the heavily guarded capital city of Naypyitaw, then held up an ink-soaked little finger, smiling widely, photographs published by the pro-military Popular News Journal showed.

Voters must dip a finger into indelible ink after casting a ballot to ensure they don’t vote more than once.

Asked by reporters if he would like to become the country’s president, an office that analysts say he has ambitions for, the general said he wasn’t the leader of any political party.

“When the parliament convenes, there is a process for electing the president,” he said.

MILITARY-BACKED PARTY SEEN AS FRONTRUNNER

Mass protests followed the ouster of Suu Kyi’s party, only to be violently suppressed by the military. Many protesters then took up arms against the junta in what became a nationwide rebellion.

In this election, the military-aligned Union Solidarity and Development Party, led by retired generals and fielding one-fifth of all candidates against severely diminished competition, is set to return to power, said Lalita Hanwong, a lecturer and Myanmar expert at Thailand’s Kasetsart University.

“The junta’s election is designed to prolong the military’s power of slavery over people,” she said. “And USDP and other allied parties with the military will join forces to form the next government.”

Following the initial phase on Sunday, two rounds of voting will be held on January 11 and January 25, covering 265 of Myanmar’s 330 townships, although the junta does not have complete control of all those areas as it fights in the war that has consumed the country since the coup.

Dates for counting votes and announcing election results have not been declared.

With fighting still raging in parts of the country, the elections are being held in an environment of violence and repression, UN human rights chief Volker Turk said last week.

There has been none of the energy and excitement of previous election campaigns, residents of Myanmar’s largest cities said, although they did not report any coercion by the military administration to push people to vote.

In the lacklustre canvassing, the USDP was the most visible. Founded in 2010, the year it won an election boycotted by the opposition, the party ran the country in concert with its military backers until 2015, when it was swept away by Suu Kyi’s NLD.

ELECTION WILL LEAD TO ‘BETTER FUTURE’, JUNTA SAYS

The junta maintains that the elections provide a pathway out of the conflict, pointing to previous military-backed polls, including one in 2010 that brought in a quasi-civilian government that pushed through a series of political and economic reforms.

For the first time, polling in Myanmar is being conducted via more than 50,000 electronic voting machines that will speed up counting and eliminate the possibility of fraud, according to the junta-controlled election commission.

Election observers from Russia, China, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Cambodia, Vietnam, Nicaragua and India have flown into the country ahead of the polls, state-run media reported on Sunday.

The junta’s attempt to establish a stable administration in the midst of an expansive conflict is fraught with risk, and significant international recognition is unlikely for any military-controlled government – even if it has a civilian veneer.

Zaw Min Tun, a junta spokesman, acknowledged that there would be critics among the international community that do not support the ongoing elections.

“However, from this election, there will be political stability,” he told reporters after voting in Naypyitaw. “We believe there will be a better future.”

(Reporting by Reuters staff; Writing by Devjyot Ghoshal; Editing by Josh Smith and William Mallard)

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Italian PM Praises ‘Complex Operation’ Leading to Arrest of 9 for Allegedly Funding Hamas Through Fake Charities  

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Friday praised what she described as a complex and far-reaching counterterrorism operation that led to the arrest of nine people accused of financing Hamas through charitable fronts operating in Italy.  

“I wish to express my appreciation and satisfaction for the particularly complex and important operation,” Meloni said, referring to the investigation that resulted in the arrests and the seizure of funds. According to the prime minister, the suspects are accused of “providing Hamas with over EUR 7 million in financing through a number of so-called charitable associations.”  

Meloni specifically cited the arrest of Mohammad Mahmoud Hannoun, president of the Association of Palestinians in Italy, who investigators have described as “a member of the foreign branch of the terrorist organization Hamas” and “head of the Italian cell of the Hamas organization.” She said the case highlighted how extremist networks allegedly exploited humanitarian structures to move money and sustain terrorist activity.  

Speaking both personally and on behalf of her government, Meloni emphasized the coordinated nature of the investigation and thanked the institutions involved. “I offer sincerest thanks to all those who made this operation possible,” she said.  

She singled out the Genoa Public Prosecutor’s Office and the National Anti-Mafia and Counterterrorism Directorate, as well as the Italian State Police and the Italian Finance Police. She credited their work in dismantling what authorities describe as a significant financing network. Meloni also acknowledged the role of intelligence services, citing “the intelligence support provided by AISE,” Italy’s External Intelligence and Security Agency.  

The prime minister’s statement highlighted the Italian government’s stance that counterterrorism efforts must extend beyond arrests to disrupting financial pipelines, particularly when they are allegedly concealed behind charitable or civic organizations. Authorities have stressed that the investigation remains in a preliminary phase and that all suspects are presumed innocent until proven guilty.   

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