Jan 30 (Reuters) - Myanmar's military-backed party has completed a sweeping victory in the country's ‌three-phase ​general election, state media said, cementing an outcome ‌long expected after a tightly controlled political process held during civil war and widespread repression.

The Philippine foreign secretary says the Association of Southeast Asian Nations does not recognize the recently held elections in Myanmar, the first since the army seized power in 2021

Myanmar’s Union and Solidarity Party wins majority in general election amid civil war, with critics calling the process a move to entrench military rule.

Human rights groups and some western countries have denounced the election, the first held since the 2021 coup, describing it as neither free nor fair

The Philippine foreign secretary nonetheless expressed optimism that “something positive” might emerge from the recent one-sided polls.

Southeast Asia’s top diplomats are holding their first major meeting in the central Philippine city of Cebu under growing pressure to beat a deadline to conclude talks on a nonaggression pact with China this year and push a peace plan that has so far

Myanmar’s military junta has billed the election as a return to democracy. International observers, however, have widely dismissed it as illegitimate.