Myanmar’s new parliament is to convene next month for its first session after elections

BANGKOK (AP) - The newly elected parliament in Myanmar will convene for its first session next month, the country's state-run media reported on Tuesday after an election that critics said was neither free nor fair.

The March 16 session will also be the first parliament meeting in more than five years since the military in 2021 seized power, taking over from the elected government led by Aung San Suu Kyi. The takeover plunged Myanmar into widespread unrest and armed resistance that has since evolved into civil war.

The parliament session comes after phased elections were held in December and January in 263 of the country's 330 townships.

The army-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party, or USDP, won a majority of the seats in the vote. Myanmar's former ruling National League for Democracy and other parties declined to run under conditions they deemed unfair.

The military government presented the vote as a return to democracy but critics say the polls were designed to legitimize the power of the military after Suu Kyi's ouster in February 2021.

The state-run Myanma Alinn newspaper said the 440-seat lower house of parliament will begin its session on March 16 while the 224-seat upper house will open two days later in the capital, Naypyitaw. The 14 regional chambers will convene on March 20, a separate announcement said.

The two-chamber legislature is expected to - at least in theory - replace the current ruling military government but the process is not likely to signal a transition to full civilian rule. The military and its allies hold most of the seats in both houses of parliament, ensuring that the army can stay in control.

According to the Union Election Commission, the USDP won 339 of the total 586 seats in the two-chamber parliament. That means that along with the military, which is automatically allocated 166 seats under the constitution, the two hold 505 seats - more than 86% of the legislature. Twenty-one other parties won between one and 20 seats each.

The new Parliament's first task will be to elect a speaker for each house, then elect a president and two vice presidents.

Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, the current head of the military government, is widely expected to assume the presidency. The constitution, however, bars a president from serving concurrently as the army's commander-in-chief - Myanmar's most powerful post - raising questions about whether he would step relinquish that role.

Suu Kyi, Myanmar's 80-year-old former leader, is serving a 27-year prison term on charges widely viewed as spurious and politically motivated. Her party, which won landslide victories in the 2020 and 2015 elections, but was forced to dissolve in 2023 after refusing to register under new military rules.