Maungdaw: The Burmese regime-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party has won all parliamentary seats in Maungdaw Township in western Burma's Arakan State, allegedly after a closed-door tally of votes in Sunday's election, the first nationwide election in two decades. 

An organizer of the National Democratic Party for Development (NDPD), the main rival of the USDP in the township, told Narinjara that the USDP won the election by a landslide in the township after using fraudulent and forceful means to gain an overwhelming number of votes that were counted in a closed-door process at the township election commission office. 

"The USDP has won the election in Maungdaw but not in a fair and competitive way. They have used fraudulent and forceful means to collect an overwhelming number of votes in the election," said the NDPD member on condition of anonymity. 

"No member of the political parties except the USDP's candidate U Aung Zaw Win was allowed to witness the final tallying of votes in the township election commission's office on 7 and 8 November," he added.

He said that most of the ballots supporting the USDP were found to have similar ink colour and handwriting, and many of the ballots that supported other parties were found to be intentionally defaced in order to be rejected for having writing over them or two many tick marks. 

According to the Election Commission, there are 257,646 eligible voters and four political parties - the Union Solidarity and Development Party, the National Democratic Party for Development, the National Unity Party, and the National Development and Peace Party - that contested for five parliamentary seats in Maungdaw Township. 

The election result was issued to political parties on 9 November, 2010, and the results as issued by the township election commission are as follows:

People's Parliament

Nationalities Parliament (7)

Nationalities Parliament (8)

State Parliament (1)

State Parliament (2)