Myanmar election to be held by January, junta chief says

Myanmar’s junta chief said the country would hold an election in December or January, the first in the war-torn nation since the military staged a coup in 2021.

“We are planning to hold the election in December 2025 or … by January 2026,” General Min Aung Hlaing was quoted as saying in the state-run newspaper Global New Light of Myanmar published Saturday.

The vote would be “free and fair” he said on Friday during a state visit to Belarus, adding that 53 political parties had “submitted their lists” to participate.

It has since unleashed a bloody crackdown on dissent as fighting ravages swathes of the country, repeatedly delaying plans for fresh polls that critics say will be neither free nor fair.