By Gitika Sharma
Myanmar is set to hold the first phase of a general election on Sunday, December 28, the country’s first national vote held since the military seized power in a February 2021 coup to remove the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi. The military has described it as a return to multi-party democracy, but critics both domestically and abroad have portrayed it as an attempt to prolong army dominance over civilian administration.
The ballot will be taken at 102 of Myanmar’s 330 townships this week in a three-phase campaign. More rounds are scheduled to occur on January 11 and January 25, 2026. A third phase will encompass 63 townships, the state media said. There is no official timetable for when votes will be counted or results released.
Elections Against the backdrop of a civil war and humanitarian failure
The vote comes in the context of an intensifying civil war, which has drawn substantial parts of the country out of junta rule and driven Myanmar into a severe humanitarian disaster. Fighting among the military, People’s Defence Forces and ethnic armed organisations has displaced more than 3.6 million people and killed thousands of civilians, according to the United Nations. Close to 20 million people are currently in desperate need of humanitarian assistance, while millions are experiencing acute hunger, and children are suffering from life-threatening malnutrition.
Campaign work, though, has been surprisingly weak, with few rallies and scant public engagement to accompany fear and uncertainty. Most people don’t want to engage in the ongoing fighting and the heavy restrictions on political expression and meetings. Human rights groups condemned the environment as coercive and suppressed political expression.
International Reaction: Legitimacy Question for the International Response
Most major opposition parties, Take Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy, for example, are not participating; and a great many smaller parties have boycotted or faced difficulty in registering under strict rules. Analysts say the election is a vehicle for military-aligned Union Solidarity and Development Party, with the aim of fostering “a civilian veneer” for the maintenance of military control.
Western governments and the United Nations condemned the polls as neither free nor fair but called for meaningful political conversation and respect for basic rights. Other neighbouring states take a more cautious view and suggest the process is, at the very least, a flawed but also critical route to stability.
As Myanmar gears up to hold its phased elections, there is deep scepticism that this vote will cut up the country’s political fractiousness or simply solidify the military’s grip on power.