Myanmar will hold the initial phase of its general elections on Dec. 28, regime media reported on Monday. Senior General Min Aung Hlaing’s regime outlined a roadmap for the first polls to be held in the country after he seized power in a 2021 military coup.
The dates for the subsequent phases of the elections, which authorities plan to begin in December and continue into January 2026 for security reasons, will be announced later, according to the regime’s Union Election Commission (UEC).
Myanmar has been roiled by violence since a nationwide armed uprising to the 2021 coup began. Min Aung Hlaing and his regime in Naypyidaw has faced fierce resistance from armed groups over the last four years.
A total of 58 political parties have been registered for the elections, of which 10 plan to compete nationwide, according to the UEC.
“Six parties are under review for approval and registration,” regime media reported earlier this month.
Aung San Suu Kyi’s ousted National League for Democracy (NLD) party, which won two landslide victories in the 2015 and 2020 elections, was barred from running in the elections. Many other pro-democracy parties have refused to take part, dismissing regime elections as a sham.
Many believe any elections held under the regime in Naypyidaw would be neither free nor fair, and would further entrench power in Min Aung Hlaing’s hands.
Pro-military proxy parties, such as the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), are expected to triumph in elections without any opposition from pro-democracy parties like the NLD, which governed Myanmar from 2016 up until the coup on Feb. 1, 2021.
A newly-formed interim administration led by Min Aung Hlaing has announced it plans to hold polls in more than 300 constituencies nationwide, including areas currently held by armed groups opposed to his regime.
Last year, regime authorities held a nationwide census in an effort to create voter rolls, but were only able to conduct on-ground surveys in 145 out of Myanmar’s 330 townships.
The military justified its 2021 coup as a necessary intervention following what it said was widespread electoral fraud three months after the vote was won decisively by the NLD.
No evidence of the alleged fraud, which would have changed the outcome, was found by election monitors nor presented to the public by the regime. NLD State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi and President Win Myint were both jailed on Feb. 1, 2021 and have been held incommunicado ever since.
REUTERS
