Myanmar’s military regime has granted amnesty to more than 3,000 political prisoners locked up for opposing army rule and dropped charges against over 5,500 others ahead of next month’s election, regime media reported on Wednesday.
It was not immediately clear whether the prisoner release would include State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been held virtually incommunicado since the military’s seizure of power in February 2021.
Regime media reported that the amnesty was granted “to ensure that all eligible voters do not lose their right to vote and can cast their votes freely and fairly in the upcoming multi-party democratic general election” which begins on Dec. 28 and continues into January 2026, according to the regime’s Union Election Commission (UEC).
Regime media added that the “State Security and Peace Commission,” which functions as the regime’s administration overseeing the transition to elections, granted amnesties covering 3,085 prisoners convicted under Section 505(A) of the penal code.
The provision, known as the incitement law, makes it a crime to spread comments that create public unrest or fear, or spread false news.
Many political detainees have been held on a charge of incitement, widely used to arrest critics of the government or military and punishable by up to three years in prison.
The announcement did not say when the releases would begin. In some past amnesties, releases have taken several days.
A total of 724 prisoners were given conditional release, meaning any future offense will require them to serve both the remaining portion of their original sentence and any new sentence, according to the announcement.
A separate announcement said 5,580 people – either being prosecuted under the same charge or in hiding after being prosecuted under the charge, also will receive amnesty and have their cases closed.
Critics have asserted that the election will be neither free nor fair because there is no independent media still inside the country and most of the leaders of Aung San Suu Kyi’s dissolved National League for Democracy (NLD) party have been arrested, went underground, or fled into exile.
Some 22,708 political detainees, including Aung San Suu Kyi and President Win Myint, were in detention as of Wednesday, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), an independent organization that keeps detailed tallies of arrests.
The 80-year-old Suu Kyi is serving a 27-year sentence after being convicted in what supporters have called politically tinged prosecutions. The military coup in 2021 was met with massive nonviolent resistance, which has since become a widespread armed struggle.
AP
