Myanmar's dominant pro-military party claimed an overwhelming victory in the first phase of the country's junta-run elections, a senior party official told AFP, after democracy watchdogs warned the poll would entrench military rule.

The armed forces snatched power in a 2021 coup, but on Sunday opened voting in a phased month-long polls they pledge will return power to the people.

"We won 82 lower house seats in townships which have finished counting, out of the total of 102," a senior official of the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) told AFP.

The party won all eight townships in the capital Naypyidaw, they added, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to officially disclose the results.

"My view on the election is clear: I don't trust it at all," Yangon resident Min Khant said yesterday.