A dismal voter turnout was reported across the majority of polling areas. Residents reported a record-low turnout in Yangon, and empty polling stations were seen across the region - a stark contrast to the queues of eager voters in 2020.4 In Thailand, where approximately 6 million people from Burma reside, only about 250 people voted. 5 In Chin State, less than 5% of voter-aged residents cast a vote.6 ALTSEAN-Burma calculated that the regime’s “nationwide election” excluded about 10.5 million voters, or 30% of all eligible voters, from voting. This included over 4 million from the 67 excluded townships and over 6.4 million in excluded village tracts and wards in 131 included townships. Calculations: https://tinyurl.com/yz7a4xm3 In Burma, there are an estimated 35 million eligible voters.7 However, the junta announced only 24.22 million eligible voters across the 263 townships it could hold polling in. Despite this, only 13.14 million people voted, many by force, revealing the fundamental illegitimacy of the process. 8 An estimated 11.08 million eligible voters boycotted. Voter turnout was almost half of the 2020 general election turnout at 25.9 million. Following the 3 phases, the UEC claimed a 55% voter turnout, considerably lower than the 2020 general election turnout which was 76%.9 Over 10.5 million citizens — 30% of the total eligible population (35 million) — were excluded from voting entirely.10 Thus, the sham election claimed a mandate from a mere 38% of the national electorate. Coercion & Fraud ● The junta weaponized the vote through widespread coercion and threats, including door-todoor intimidation, forced conscription, job termination, denial of essential documents, and physical dragging to polling stations, yet still faced mass boycott and dismal turnout. ● It systematically used fraudulent advance ballots to manufacture USDP “victories.” ● The regime enforced the sham process through violent repression, arrests, and forced voting, while openly promoting perpetrators of genocide. Where voting did occur, the junta turned the ballot into a weapon. Administrators, militias, and security forces forced people to vote under threat of arrest, door-to-door intimidation, forced conscription, rejection of travel documents, overseas travel bans, confiscation of border passes, job termination, fines, and denial of aid, compensation, or replacement land for homes destroyed by fire. Intimidation, violence, and fear fail to raise voter turnout The junta enforced voting through threats and intimidation. The regime ordered junta staff, soldiers’ families, and overseas staff to vote for the USDP and provide proof of voting. 11 Junta officials also ordered factories and workshops to shut down, then forced factory managers to make workers vote, though many bravely refused. 12 The USDP pressured IDPs who had been displaced by armed conflict to vote in 4 5 Mizzima (25 Jan 2026) Voter participation hits record low in Yangon as final phase of general election concludes Myanmar Now (28 Dec 2025) အတ ကာက် တ ာ်းတ ကာငို့် အချ ြို့တ တွ စစ် တပ် တ ွ ်းတကာက်ပဲွတွင် မဲ ထ ညို့်ခဲို့ က သည် 6 DVB (7 Jan 2026) စစ် တပ် တ ွ ်းတကာက်ပဲက ွ ို ချင်းပပည်နယ်က ပပည်သူ ၈၀ ာခိုင်နန်းတကျာ် မဲမတပ်း 7 Union Election Commission (2024) ဆနဒမဲတပ်းမ အတပခအတန စစ်တဆ်းတတွြို့ ရချက်မျာ်း 8 Global New Light of Myanmar (25 Jan 2026) International Election Observers Welcomed, Briefed on Phase III General Election IFES (6 Feb 2026) Myanmar 10 Union Election Commission (2024) ဆနဒမဲတပ်းမ အတပခအတန စစ်တဆ်းတတွြို့ ရချက်မျာ်း 9 11 DVB (28 Dec 2025) ဝန်ထမ််းမျာ်းမဲတပ်းပပီ်းတ ကာင်း အတထာက်အထာ်း တင်ပပ န် စစ်တကာင်စီ အကျပ် ကိုင် 12 DVB (25 Jan 2026) စစ်တ ကာင်စီ အလိုပ်သမာ်းဝန်ကကီ်း အလိုပ်သမာ်းမျာ်းထမ မဲ န် ခက်ခဲ 4