Name: Polls close on first day of Myanmar’s widely criticised ‘sham’ election | BBC News
Uploaded: 2025-12-28T16:57:34.000Z
Duration: 1 min 53 s
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Adverbs of degree

Voting in the opening phase of Myanmar's general election, the first since the military seized power in a coup nearly five years ago, has ended.

Adverbs of manner

In the past hour, the election has been widely dismissed as a sham.

With major political parties dissolved, many of their leaders jailed, and

as much as half of the country not able to vote because of the ongoing civil war, the ruling junta has framed the vote as a pathway back to stability.

The coup sparked widespread opposition and spiralled into a civil war.

Southeast Asia correspondent Jonathan Head centres this report from Mandalay.

Voting appears to have gone smoothly, at least in those parts of Myanmar where the election has actually happened.

But that's only about one quarter of the country.

And even after all three rounds of voting are complete, in a month's time, about half of Myanmar will have been excluded.

The atmosphere surrounding this election has been subdued and fearful.

The party that most people had supported in the last two elections, Aung San SUU Kyi's National League for Democracy, is excluded.

She languishes somewhere in an unknown prison.

Many of those who have say they felt they had no choice.

And remember the country's still in the grip of the civil war ignited by the disastrous coup five years ago.

There are villages not far from where I'm standing under the control of armed insurgents.

And even today the military has been bombing other opposition held villages from the air.

Perhaps the best hope is that this election brings more voices and views into a regime which has been dominated until now by hard headed generals who believe that all levels of force are justified in crushing their opponents.