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Myanmar Sets Dec. 28 Start for Staggered National Election

Rights groups describe the planned vote as a sham intended to legitimize military rule.

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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

  • The junta-appointed Union Election Commission set Dec. 28 for the first phase and said additional phases will follow over December and January, with exact dates to be announced later.
  • Large swaths of the country remain outside military control as resistance and ethnic armed groups say they will bar polling in their territories.
  • Major opposition forces are barred or boycotting, the National League for Democracy has been dissolved, and Aung San Suu Kyi remains in prison.
  • A 2024 census used to build voter rolls failed to collect data on about 19 million of Myanmar’s roughly 51 million people, highlighting severe logistical limits.
  • New election-related laws impose harsh penalties for opposing or disrupting the polls, with possible punishments up to the death penalty.