MYANMAR JUNTA’S PLANNED ELECTIONS: FALLING SHORT OF DEMOCRATIC LEGITIMACY delimitation process would have required a constitutional amendment. The number of seats in all houses remains unchanged. By keeping 50% of seats in Amyotha Hluttaw and state/region hluttaws allocated via FPTP, the new electoral system maintains an advantage for larger parties, and especially the USDP, which has the most resources, enjoys the military’s support, and will compete nationwide. In addition, the PR component also favors larger parties, as many states or regions are divided into several constituencies (up to three each for Amyotha Hluttaw, and six each for region/state hluttaws). The nature of PR systems is such that electoral districts with more seats yield more proportional results, and vice versa. 11 out of 26 Amyotha Hluttaw constituencies will have only two seats, which will be awarded to the parties arriving first and second. However, the seat allocation formula uses the largest remainder method and the Hare quota, both of which favor smaller parties in larger constituencies, granting them token representation in the new parliament. The junta’s revised electoral system has drawn criticism from registered ethnic parties. Some have said that PR was not appropriate for use in state/regional parliaments12, while others complain that linking FPTP and PR votes will favor large parties over smaller ones, which are unable to field as many candidates13. Despite claims of greater representation, the new electoral system introduced by the junta and its election commission favors large political parties, especially the military-backed USDP. Together with the 25% of seats reserved for the Tatmadaw, it ensures that the military and its proxies will be dominant in the next parliament. 12 13 36 CNI, “PR system should not used for Region and State Hluttaws”, 6 August 2025, https://cnimyanmar.com/ index.php/english-edition/30667-pr-system-should-not-used-for-region-and-state-hluttaws [in Burmese] Myanmar Peace Monitor, “ဆန္ဒဒမဲဲတစ််မဲဲဟာာ ကိုု�ယ််စား�းလှှယ််လော�ာင်းး�အပြ�င်် ပါါတီီကိုု�ပါါ မဲဲပေး�းတဲ့့�ပုံံ�စံံနဲ့့� ဆော�ာင််ရွွက်် မယ််လို့့� UEC ပြော��ာ”, 27 August 2025, https://mmpeacemonitor.org/my/mmr-news/%e1%80%86%e1%80%94%e1 %80%b9%e1%80%92%e1%80%99%e1%80%b2%e1%80%90%e1%80%85%e1%80%ba%e1%80%99%e1%80%b2 %e1%80%9f%e1%80%ac-%e1%80%80%e1%80%ad%e1%80%af%e1%80%9a%e1%80%ba%e1%80%85%e1%80% ac%e1%80%b8%e1%80%9c/