Polls opened in Myanmar on Sunday kick-starting a controversial election the military junta says will return democratic rule, nearly five years after it seized power from an elected government, unleashing a brutal civil war it has yet to win.

Polls have opened in Myanmar’s first general election since the country’s military toppled Aung San Suu Kyi’s democratically elected government in a coup in 2021.

The voting for Parliament is almost sure to favor the ruling military junta, which is stage-managing the polls. Still, some see them as the most pragmatic way to try to improve conditions.

In the lacklustre canvassing ahead of the polls, the USDP was the most visible. Founded in 2010, the year it won an election boycotted by the opposition, the party ran the country in concert with its military backers until 2015, when it was swept away by Suu Kyi's NLD.

Polls close in first ballot of Myanmar's general election since military seized power in 2021 coup Final results are expected to be announced by February after two more rounds of voting are completed,

About half of Americans say they’ve already given the 2028 presidential election, set to be the first race since 2016 without a sitting president vying for the nomination on either side, at least some thought,