Regime media reported that Min Aung Hlaing has pledged to hand over power to an elected government after regime scheduled elections, which will begin on Dec. 28, are completed in 2026.
“Myanmar would hold free and fair multi-party democratic general elections in the near future, and once completed, state responsibilities will be transferred in accordance with democratic standards,” Min Aung Hlaing said during a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, on Sept. 25.
Min Aung Hlaing arrived in Russia on Sept. 24 to attend the World Atomic Week 2025 from Sept. 25-27. He is also scheduled to travel to Kazakhstan from Moscow after the forum.
Regime media reported that Min Aung Hlaing said that his new administration, which was formed out of the regime which seized power during the military coup on Feb. 1, 2021, is working with Russia’s state nuclear corporation Rosatom to build small modular nuclear power plants.
He called for more Russian assistance to develop nuclear infrastructure, human resources, and related projects in Myanmar. He invited Russia to send election observers to monitor the polls, which will begin on Dec. 28 and continue into January 2026.
The regime’s Union Election Commission (UEC) has announced that 4,963 parliamentary candidates from 57 political parties and 95 independents have submitted applications to contest the polls.
Of the 57 parties registered with the UEC, only six will compete nationally. The military’s Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), which governed Myanmar under a hybrid civilian-military administration from 2011-16, is running 1,018 candidates nationwide.
The remaining 51 parties will compete only in specific states and regions, fielding a combined 960 total candidates.
Jailed State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been held incommunicado by the regime since it ousted her National League for Democracy (NLD) government on Feb. 1, 2021, won back to back landslide victories against the USDP in the 2015 and 2020 elections.
President Win Myint also remains in prison since his arrest during the 2021 coup. The NLD was dissolved in 2023 for failing to re-register under the regime’s new Political Parties Registration Law, along with 39 other pro-democracy parties.
The interim National Unity Government (NUG), a body of elected lawmakers ousted in the 2021 coup, as well as resistance forces such as the Karen National Union (KNU) and the Arakan Army (AA), have called for a boycott of the regime elections.
