The USDP won the November 7th polls by a large margin, securing a significant majority of all contested seats in the 440-seat Pyithu Hluttaw (People's Assembly, the lower house), the 224-seat Amyotha Hluttaw (Nationalities Assembly, the upper house) and the 14 state and regional assemblies. (In both national chambers, 25% of seats are reserved for appointees representing the military.) Voter turnout appears to have been low, based on various accounts detailing the absence of queues at polling stations, and reports suggest that there were serious irregularities, mainly involving the manipulation of advance voting on a sufficiently large scale to hand victory to USDP candidates. Despite the restrictions imposed on them during the campaign, pro-democracy and ethnic-minority parties picked up a few seats. However, the USDP and the military will together be firmly in control in the new parliament.