It was the first such ballot since a military coup toppled the last civilian government in 2021.
The junta, having crushed pro-democracy protests after the coup and sparked a nationwide rebellion, said the three-phase vote would bring political stability to the impoverished Southeast Asian nation, despite international condemnation of the exercise.
But the United Nations, some Western nations and human rights groups have said the vote is not free, fair or credible, given anti-junta political parties are out of the running and it is illegal to criticise the polls.
Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, deposed by the military months after her National League for Democracy won the last general election by a landslide in 2020, remains in detention, and the party she led to power has been dissolved.
The military-aligned Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), led by retired generals and fielding one-fifth of all candidates against severely diminished competition, is set to return to power, said Lalita Hanwong, a lecturer and Myanmar expert at Thailand's Kasetsart University.
"The junta's election is designed to prolong the military's power of slavery over people," she said. "And USDP and other allied parties with the military will join forces to form the next government."
Initial voter turnout in Sunday's polls was much lower than in the 2020 election, 10 residents of cities spread across Myanmar said.
Further rounds of voting will be held on January 11 and January 25, covering 265 of Myanmar's 330 townships, although the junta does not have complete control of all those areas.
Dressed in civilian clothes, junta chief Min Aung Hlaing voted in the heavily guarded capital city of Naypyitaw, then held up an ink-soaked little finger, smiling widely, footage on state media MRTV showed.
Voters must dip a finger into indelible ink after casting a ballot to ensure they do not vote more than once.
Asked by reporters if he would like to become the nation's president, an office that analysts say he has ambitions for, the general said he was not the leader of any political party.
"When the parliament convenes, there is a process for electing the president," he said.
Tom Andrews, the UN special envoy for human rights in Myanmar, said on Sunday the election was not a pathway out of the country's crisis and must be strongly rejected.
Zaw Min Tun, a junta spokesman, acknowledged international critics who do not support the elections.
"However, from this election, there will be political stability," he told reporters after voting in Naypyitaw. "We believe there will be a better future."
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