Party backed by generals set for landslide as 'sham' Myanmar election ends

2 hours agoJonathan Head,South East Asia correspondent, Nyaungshwe, Shan State andJosh CheethamPolls in Myanmar have closed after a third and final stage of voting in what are widely viewed as sham elections.Many popular parties are banned from standing and voting has not been possible in large areas of the country because of a five-year-long civil war.The dominant party backed by the ruling military junta is expected to win a landslide victory.The current regime has rejected international criticism of the election, maintaining that it is free and fair.Around one-fifth of the country's 330 townships, including the cities of Yangon and Mandalay, voted in the last stage. Six parties, including the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), fielded candidates nationwide, while another 51 parties and independent candidates decided to contest state and regional levels.Two previous rounds were held on 28 December and 11 January - giving overwhelming victories to the USDP.The party won only 6% of parliamentary seats in the last free election in 2020.As in previous rounds of this strange, month-long election, voting was orderly and peaceful at the polling station in Nyaungshwe, Shan State, which a BBC team observed. Set in a large school, shaded by huge rain trees, there were ample volunteers an officials to guide voters where to go, and how to make their choice using the new, locally-made electronic voting machines. You could be forgiven for believing this was a normal democratic exercise, not the sham its critics say it is.However polling day was preceded by a campaigning period marked by fear, intimidation and a pervasive sense that little will change after the inevitable victory by the USDP. Everywhere the BBC team travelled in southern Shan State, we were followed and closely monitored by dozens of police and military officials, always polite but very persistent. It proved nearly impossible to get people to say anything about the vote, so nervous were they of possible repercussions.The next steps after final results are announced are laid down in the military-drafted constitution. Parliament will meet within the next two months to choose a new president, and everyone expects that to be the coup leader Gen Min Aung Hlaing. It will be the same regime with civilian clothes. But he will then have to relinquish his command of the armed forces. His replacement is certain to be a loyalist, but his hold over the ranks of the military will inevitably be less secure, and it is no secret that many other senior officers do not believe he has made a good job of leading the country. With many more voices in politics, there is the possibility of wider debate inside government over which direction Myanmar should now take, and the possibility - distant for now - of the first steps towards ending the civil war.The military junta took control of Myanmar in a 2021 coup, ousting an elected civilian government led by Nobel Peace Prize Winner Aung San Suu Kyi.She remains in detention and, like many other opposition groups, her National League for Democracy has been formally dissolved.The military has been fighting against both armed resistance groups which oppose the coup and ethnic armies that have their own militias. It lost control of large parts of the country in a series of major setbacks, but clawed back territory this year enabled by support from China and Russia.The civil war has killed thousands of people, displaced millions more, destroyed the economy and left a humanitarian vacuum. A devastating earthquake in March and international funding cuts have made the situation far worse.