Regime employees told DVB that they don’t want to participate in the regime’s 2025–26 elections after being assigned to help guard polling stations during voting on Dec. 28, Jan. 11 and Jan. 25, 2026.
“I lost my husband and son just eight months ago in the earthquake. I’m still mourning them every day. I’m not interested in the elections,” a staff member at the regime’s Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement, who lives in Naypyidaw, told DVB on the condition of anonymity after being assigned to a polling station in the capital on election day.
A 7.7 magnitude earthquake hit central Myanmar on March 28 with its epicenter in Sagaing Region. Mandalay, Bago, Magway, Naypyidaw and southern Shan State were five of the six hardest hit regions.
The quake killed at least 4,477 people nationwide, according to DVB data. The regime death toll is 3,773 killed with 653 survivors rescued from the rubble of collapsed buildings.
Residents in Mandalay Region told DVB that they are struggling to recover over the last eight months since the quake. In Mandalay, the death toll has reached at least 2,916, according to DVB data.
“[The regime] didn’t give residents any aid after the earthquake,” a member of the People’s Defense Force (PDF) in southern Shan told DVB, adding that residents near tourist hot spot Inle Lake have also struggled to recover over the last eight months.
The Pa-O Youth Organization (PYO) told DVB that nearly 100 residents from 25 villages were killed and a total of 3,255 homes were destroyed in Inle, located 24 miles (38 km) south of the Shan State capital Taunggyi, on March 28.
The regime employee in Naypyidaw added that she is now living with her parents after losing her son and husband, who died during the quake on March 28. She is now concerned for her own safety during the elections due to the threat of violence at the polling stations.
“I think holding elections when the country is in turmoil is wrong,” she told DVB.
