ISTANBUL / ISLAMABAD

Myanmar on Sunday closed the polls for the third and final phase of the first general elections since a military coup in 2021, local media reported.

The polling, which began in 63 townships across the country on Sunday morning, concluded in the afternoon, according to Myanmar Radio and Television.

Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, the country’s acting president, visited polling stations in the Mandalay region.

Rejecting the international criticism of the junta-led election, Gen. Min said: “It is not my concern that the international community refuses to acknowledge this,” according to the newspaper Irrawaddy.

Phase two of the voting was held on Jan. 11 in 100 townships nationwide, while phase one took place on Dec. 28 in 102 townships.

Earlier this month, Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Htun, head of the junta’s information team, said a new parliament would convene in March following the completion of the elections, with a new government expected to take office in April.

The elections will determine members of the Union Parliament, including both the lower and upper houses, as well as state and regional legislatures. The newly formed parliament will then elect a president, who will form the next government.

Myanmar’s previous elected government, led by Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy, was ousted in a 2021 coup, plunging the country into more than four years of emergency rule.

The current polling process is the first election since then.

Myanmar has a bicameral parliament with 664 seats – 440 in the lower house, and 224 in the upper house.

Forty political parties were dissolved in 2023, including the National League for Democracy. At least six parties -- with nearly 5,000 candidates -- took part in the elections.

At the regional level, 57 parties are in the race. The military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party has put up over 1,000 candidates.

On Friday, in a post on the US social media company X, UN special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, Tom Andrews, called on the international community to reject the legitimacy of the elections.

“Only an illegitimate government can emerge from an illegitimate election. As Myanmar's election ends, the world must reject it as fraudulent while rejecting what follows as simply military rule in civilian clothing,” he said.