Myanmar’s main pro-military party has claimed an overwhelming lead in the first phase of elections organised by the country’s military rulers as critics warn that the tightly controlled vote is designed to cement the position of the ruling party.

The first round of voting on Sunday is to be followed by two further rounds on January 11 and January 25. Voting has been cancelled in 65 townships.

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A senior official from the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) told the AFP news agency the party had won 82 of 102 seats in the lower house of the legislature in townships where counting had been completed, suggesting it secured more than 80 percent of the seats contested in Sunday’s vote.

The official added that the party had also won all eight townships in the capital, Naypyidaw. Official figures have yet to be published by Myanmar’s Union Election Commission.

The United Nations human rights chief has condemned the elections, citing a crackdown on dissent, while campaign groups have criticised candidate lists dominated by figures aligned with the military.

The elections were held in only about a third of Myanmar’s 330 townships as large parts of the country are inaccessible due to fighting between the military and opposition forces after the 2021 military coup that overthrew the elected government of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

The USDP is widely expected to emerge as the largest party. Analysts have long described it as a civilian proxy for the military.

In the last elections in 2020, the USDP suffered a heavy defeat to Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD). The NLD is one of 40 political parties that have been banned by the military government, according to campaigners in the United Kingdom. Suu Kyi has been detained since the military seized power.

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After voting concluded on Sunday, the military government’s leader, Min Aung Hlaing, said the armed forces could be trusted to return power to a civilian-led government. He has ruled the country by decree since the coup.

The military takeover triggered a nationwide civil war as pro-democracy activists formed armed resistance groups alongside ethnic minority forces that have long fought the central government.

The conflict has killed an estimated 90,000 people, displaced about 3.5 million and left roughly 22 million people in need of humanitarian assistance. According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, more than 22,000 people are currently detained for political offences.