Five years after staging a military coup that overturned the 2020 election results and imprisoned elected leaders, including National League for Democracy (NLD) leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and President U Win Myint, Myanmar’s junta is now attempting to legitimise its rule through elections. The poll has been denounced as a sham by the international community, with the regime’s allies — Russia, Belarus and neighbouring China — sending observers to lend it credibility.
The first phase of the poll was held on December 28, 2025, with the remaining two scheduled for early and late January. However, these polls cover only about half of Myanmar’s territory, with the rest beyond the junta’s reach due to the ongoing civil war involving the NLD-led National Unity Government’s Bamar-dominated People’s Defence Forces and ethnic armed organisations across the country.
