Voters in Myanmar have voted in the first phase of the country's general election, the first since the 2021 military coup. International observers and opponents of military rule call the vote illegitimate.

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.

Myanmar will hold a third phase of voting for its general election on January 25, according to an announcement on state media on Friday, outlining a poll plan that comes amid a raging civil war in the Southeast Asian nation.

Myanmar’s election is unlikely to change the reality for more than 1M Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh who fled what the UN called ‘genocidal violence’ in Myanmar. Efforts to repatriate the Muslim minority have stalled since the junta seized power in 2021. Al Jazeera’s Tanvir Chowdhury reports from Cox’s Bazar.

Many condemned the Myanmar Elections as a “sham”, as the most popular party, the National League for Democracy, is banned from running in the election. Stay tuned to this LIVE blog for all the latest

A coup set off a brutal civil war and made a poor country poorer. Now its military rulers are seeking a veneer of legitimacy by holding elections.