Across dozens of townships, USDP candidates lost in-person voting but “won” after the sudden appearance of inflated advance ballots. In Shan State alone, the SNDP lost its stronghold of Mongpan Township—which it had held since 2010—to the USDP, after an influx of nearly 2,000 advance votes overturned the machine results. In Madaya (Mandalay Region), Mongyawng, and Tangyan townships (Shan State), the late arrival of advance votes from junta troops and police twisted the results in favor of the USDP. The SNDP added that there was no transparency or consistency in the advance voting process, leading to concerns of fraud.23 Additionally, the junta manipulated and favored USDP through its rigged voting machines. A PP candidate for Kawhmu Township (Yangon Region) reported that a Myanmar Electronic Voting Machine (MEVM) in his constituency registered votes for a “major party” (implied USDP) 6 out of 12 times, regardless of the button pressed. Also, in Kungyangon Township (Yangon Region), the specific button for the PP was broken, and officials admitted the problem only after a voter pointed it out.24 USDP buys Rohingya votes with citizenship promise; “diversity” party makes genocide policy During the campaign, the junta-proxy USDP reportedly bribed Rohingya with cash and ID cards for votes. The persecuted Rohingya have previously had their citizenship and national rights illegally stripped from them, making the buying of votes with ID promises an even more distorted form of exploitation. 25 Its ultra-nationalist ally, the ironically-named Peace and Diversity Party, officially adopted genocide as policy, vowing to continue genocidal atrocities against Rohingya. 26 Most perversely, the USDP fielded former LID 33 commander, Lt. Gen. Aung Aung, notorious for his role in carrying out the 2017 Rohingya genocide, for the Pyithu Hluttaw seat in Taunggyi Constituency (S. Shan State). 27 Although defeated, his candidacy proved that the regime continued to promote perpetrators over accountability and rejected vetting, lustration, and any plan of non-recurrence. Silencing election dissent through violence and arrests The junta enacted and weaponized the so-called Election Protection Law to criminalize criticism and opposition. During Sep 2025-19 Jan 2026, the junta charged at least 404 civilians for alleged “election interference.”28 On 20 Sep, the junta sentenced 2 young men each to 49 years in prison and a 19-yearold woman to 42 years, for putting up anti-election posters in Yangon. 29 The junta arrested civilians for protesting, refusing to vote, or criticizing the process online. Even “liking” a critical social media post was enough to be charged under the illegal law. Throughout all phases, the junta imposed internet and telecommunications blackouts and jammers in polling areas to restrict information flow and accountability. 30 The junta and its notorious Pyu Saw Htee militiamen obstructed and harassed national and international reporters, blocked filming, and forced 23 DVB (12 Jan 2026) ကျာ်းပဖြူပါတီ မဲတပ်းစက်တွင် နင ို ်ပပီ်း ကက တင်မဲတွင် ရ်းနမို့် ဟို ပါတီဥကကဋ္ဌတပပာ 24 BBC Burmese (12 Jan 2026) တ ွ ်းတကာက်ပဲအ ွ ပိုင်း ၂ အလွဲတ တွနဲ ို့ပတ်သက် လို PPP နဲ ို့ပပည်သူပါတီ ဘာတပပာလဲ ို့ ို့ 25 DVB (30 Dec 2025) တ ါက်တာတအ်းတမာင် နငို့် ဦ်းဘရန် တို မဲ ို့ ရ်း; DMG (19 Dec 2025) စစ်တ တွတွင် မွတ်ဆလင်မျာ်းထမ စစ်တကာင်စီ ဝန်ထမ််းမျာ်း တငွညှစ် တန 26 Myanmar Now (19 Jan 2026) Myanmar nationalist stands by calls to kill Rohingya during genocide hearings Myanmar Now (2 Jan 2026) Myanmar general linked to Rohingya atrocities loses bid for election 28 DVB (21 Jan 2026) စစ် တပ်၏တ ွ ်းတကာက်ပဲက ွ ို ဆန်က ို့ ျင်တဝဖန်မပဖငို့် ဖမ််းဆီ်းခ သူ ၄၀၀ တကျာ်ရလာ 27 29 30 AAPP (2 Feb 2026) What's happening in Myanmar Myanmar Internet Project (29 Jan 2026) Digital Repression During the Three Phases of the Sham Election 6