Demonstrations against the Myanmar military regime’s 2025-26 elections swept across cities in Asia, Europe, and North America over the weekend. From Oslo, Norway to Tokyo, Japan and from Berlin, Germany, to Daegu and Seoul, South Korea, protesters rejected the regime elections, set to begin on Dec. 28 and continue into January 2026, as a “sham.”
“We called on all countries not to recognize the elections. The Myanmar military is terrorizing and oppressing the Myanmar people. So it is a sham election that will prolong the military dictatorship,” said a Myanmar national living in Japan on the condition of anonymity, who joined Sunday’s rally in Tokyo in advance of Human Rights Day on Dec. 10.
Hundreds of Myanmar nationals living in Japan joined Tibetans, Uyghurs, Hong Kongers, Cambodians, Belarusians, Iranians, and North Koreans on the streets of Tokyo on Dec. 7. They carried banners calling for the release of jailed State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, President Win Myint, along with 22,000 other political prisoners in Myanmar.
Myo Min Swe, a member of the Myanmar community in Tokyo, told DVB that the rally aimed to raise awareness in Japan about the military’s atrocities and war crimes committed against the people of Myanmar.
In Oslo, Norway, Myanmar and Vietnamese nationals held a joint demonstration on Dec. 7 in front of the Norwegian Parliament also in advance of Human Rights Day on Dec. 10.
Norwegian member of parliament Trine Lise Sundnes, the National Unity Government (NUG) representative to Norway Maung Maung Myint, and other Norwegian supporters of Myanmar’s democracy movement, attended.
Sundnes expressed solidarity with people in Myanmar “fighting against the brutal military dictatorship” and pledged to raise the issue of regime elections in the Norwegian Parliament.
Myanmar and Vietnamese nationals requested that Norway increase support for the pro-democracy movement in their home countries.
On Dec. 7, protesters in Berlin, Germany called on their government not to recognize any election results from Myanmar given that all opposition parties have been dissolved and only pro-regime parties are able to contest the elections. An anti-regime election protest was also held on the same day in Daegu and Seoul, South Korea.
A protest held at San Francisco City Hall, in the U.S. state of California, on Dec. 6 had demonstrators showing support for a protest in Mandalay by pro-democracy leader Tayzar San who urged Myanmar citizens to join a nationwide “Silent Strike” on Dec. 10.
This coordinated wave of anti-regime election protests comes as Naypyidaw accelerates its push for polls amid escalating conflict and a deepening humanitarian crisis inside the country.
On Dec. 5, the regime announced that its elections will not be held in 2,931 wards and village tracts in 202 townships previously designated for polls by the regime’s Union Election Commission (UEEC). It did not provide reasons for the vote cancellation.
Fighting between regime and resistance forces continues across the country. The National Unity Government (NUG), a group of lawmakers elected in 2020 but ousted in the 2021 coup, announced that the People’s Defense Force (PDF) seized a regime outpost in Mogok Township, Mandalay Region, on Dec. 6.
At least 11 civilians were killed in airstrikes on Momeik Township in northern Shan State carried out by the Myanmar Air Force on the same day. At least 1,849 people have been killed in 2,321 regime airstrikes nationwide so far this year, according to DVB data.
Resistance groups, pro-democracy activists, and international human rights organizations, have all called on Myanmar people to boycott the regime elections.
Swedish activist Greta Thunberg echoed these calls, urging the international community to reject the military’s attempt at recognition through polls, during her acceptance speech for whistleblower group Justice for Myanmar at the 2025 Right Livelihood Award Ceremony in Stockholm, Sweden, on Dec. 2.
