BANGKOK – Myanmar will hold parliamentary elections by January next year, the leader of the ruling military said, without setting a date for a vote that the generals who seized power in 2021 will be hoping will end widespread opposition to their grip on politics.
The junta’s opponents say a vote under the military while the most popular politicians are locked up and their parties banned will be a sham. The junta is in control of only about half the country after significant losses to pro-democracy and ethnic minority insurgents fighting to end military rule.
Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing announced the timing of the election while on a visit to Belarus on Friday, the military-run Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper reported.
“The election is slated for December 2025, with the possibility of … January 2026,” the newspaper quoted Min Aung Hlaing as saying.
There was no immediate comment from forces opposed to military rule but a parallel civilian government in exile, the National Unity Government, has previously dismissed the junta’s plan for an election as window-dressing to bolster the military’s legitimacy at home and abroad.
Allied ethnic minority insurgent groups fighting for self-determination have also rejected an election under military rule.
Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, by far the most popular political leader in Myanmar, has been jailed since the military ousted her elected government on Feb. 1, 2021.
Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party, which swept elections in 2015 and 2020, has been dissolved under military regulations and thousands of its members and supporters are in jail or have fled to rebel zones or into self-exile.
China, which has major investments in Myanmar and is keen to see an end to its turmoil, supports the vote and has offered help to organize it, as have some of Myanmar’s Southeast Asian neighbors.
Min Aung Hlaing, in a speech in Belarus, said 53 political parties had submitted paperwork to take part in the election.
“We also invite the observation teams from Belarus to come and observe,” he said.
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Voting is expected to be held in fewer than half of Myanmar’s 330 townships in the first phase of a staggered vote, a political party official said late last year after discussion with the election organizers.
In Myanmar’s last election in 2020, voting was held in 315 out of the 330 townships.
After Suu Kyi’s party swept the vote, as it did in a 2015 election, the army complained of cheating and overthrew her government. She has been jailed for 27 years.
Election organizers said at the time there was no evidence of any significant cheating.
Min Aung Hlaing was in Belarus after a visit to Russia where he held talks with President Vladimir Putin.
Edited by Mike Firn