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2h ago

Myanmar Junta Sets December 28 Date for First Phase of Multi-Stage Election

The Union Election Commission’s fixed date highlights the military’s push for legitimacy despite widespread conflict, incomplete voter rolls, opposition boycotts.

FILE - A voter casts ballot at a polling station on Nov. 8, 2020, in Yangon, Myanmar. (AP Photo/Thein Zaw, File)
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Myanmar's junta has touted elections as a way to end the civil war and offered cash rewards to opposition fighters willing to lay down their arms ahead of the vote

Overview

  • Authorities have set December 28, 2025 as the start of a multi-stage general election, marking the first specific date release since announcing a late-2025 vote timeline.
  • Voting is planned across multiple phases over December and January for security reasons but faces disruption in territories controlled by ethnic armed and pro-democracy forces.
  • Opposition figures, including Aung San Suu Kyi, remain barred or detained and many parties are boycotting the process after the 2021 coup.
  • A 2024 census intended to establish voter rolls failed to register roughly 19 million people, calling into question the election’s nationwide reach.
  • UN experts and Western governments have denounced the polls as illegitimate and engineered to cement Senior General Min Aung Hlaing’s hold on power.