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.

Voters trickled to Myanmar's heavily restricted polls on Dec. 28, with the ruling junta touting the exercise as a return to democracy five years after it ousted the last elected government and triggered a civil war. Former civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi remains jailed, while her hugely popular party has been dissolved and is not taking part.

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.

A roundup of live updates from The Irrawaddy’s coverage of the first phase of voting on Sunday, which was marked by violence, protests and low turnout.

Myanmar's junta said on Friday it will lift a curfew imposed in Yangon since its 2021 coup, just days before the start of elections

The initial phase of Myanmar’s first general election in five years has been held, under the supervision of its military government while a civil war rages throughout much of the country.

YANGON -- Myanmar's military regime will hold the first round of a general election on Sunday in a bid to secure political stability under its control and end a five-year period without an elected parliament.