Myanmar to hold election in December or January

Myanmar’s military government plans to hold a general election in December 2025 or January 2026, state media reported on Saturday, quoting junta chief Min Aung Hlaing, who moved to provide the first clear timetable for the much-promised polls in the conflict-torn country.

Since early 2021, Myanmar has been in turmoil as the military overthrew the elected civilian government of Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, unleashing a protest movement that has devolved into an armed uprising against the junta, with violence spreading across the country.

Min Aung Hlaing has pledged multiple times to conduct an election, but his government has extended a state of emergency multiple times, even as his army is being worn down by a coalition of anti-junta opposition groups and ethnic militias.

The promised polls have been widely dismissed as a sham to maintain a military-controlled rule by proxy, with dozens of political parties banned after the junta lost control over swathes of Myanmar.

“We will hold an election that is free and fair, and it will be held soon,” Min Aung Hlaing said visiting Belarus, and announced the time frame, the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper reported.

“Fifty-three political parties have so far submitted their lists to take part in the election,” he said.

It was unclear how many of those parties are aligned with opposition or ethnic minority blocs. The new election law dramatically hikes the criteria for the parties competing for seats nationwide to 100 times what had been stipulated before the coup.

Because of fighting across the country, the junta was able to conduct a full, on-the-ground census in just 145 of the country’s 330 townships in compiling voters’ lists for the elections, a census report published in December said.

The election also offers the prospect of further violence as the junta and its opponents seek to expand their hold on territory in Myanmar, where the escalating conflict has ravaged the economy and displaced more than 3.5 million people.

The National League for Democracy on gaining power in 2020 overwhelmingly won the election despite the military’s claims that there had been voter fraud, which was rejected by international observers. The military dismissed the election commission and put a new body in charge that later said it had discovered 11 million polling violations.