Click to expand Image A billboard of the chairman of the Myanmar military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party ahead of the start of the campaign period for the junta’s elections in Yangon, October 27, 2025. © 2025 STR/AFP via Getty Images (Bangkok) – Foreign governments should reject the Myanmar junta’s plans to hold elections from late December 2025 through January 2026 because they will not be free, fair, or inclusive, Human Rights Watch said today. Since the February 2021 military coup, the junta has systematically dismantled the rule of law and the country’s nascent democratic systems, and ahead of the polls it has ramped up repression and violence.The junta announced that the first two phases of the multistage elections will take place on December 28 and January 11. Since the coup, the junta has banned dozens of political parties and jailed an estimated 30,000 political prisoners, including nearly 100 people detained under a draconian election law passed in July. Sr. Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, the junta’s leader, has acknowledged that the elections will not be held in all townships, reflecting the widespread fighting with opposition armed groups characterized by the military’s war crimes.“The Myanmar junta’s sham elections are a desperate bid for international legitimacy after nearly five years of brutal military repression,” said Elaine Pearson, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Governments lending any credibility to these polls would signal a complete lack of support for rights-respecting civilian democratic rule in Myanmar.”On July 29, the junta enacted the Law on the Prevention of Obstruction, Disruption, and Sabotage of Multiparty Democratic General Election, which criminalizes criticism of the election by banning all speech, organizing, or protest that disrupts any part of the electoral process. Violators can face up to 20 years in prison and the death penalty.Junta authorities have arrested 94 people under the new law since August—including at least 4 children—for social media activity, distributing stickers and leaflets, delivering speeches, and other alleged acts of election “interference” and “disruption.” On September 9, a man was sentenced to seven years with hard labor in Taunggyi, Shan State, for a Facebook post criticizing the junta. On October 29, the filmmakers Zambu Htun Thet Lwin and Aung Chan Lu were arrested for “liking” a Facebook post that criticized an election propaganda film.The authorities have detained nearly 2,000 people since February 2022 for online activity supporting the opposition or criticizing the military, part of the junta’s gutting of freedoms of speech, the press, and assembly.The military lacks sufficient territorial control to hold credible elections, with much of the country contested or held by the opposition, Human Rights Watch said. The nationwide census attempted in October 2024 to compile voter lists was held in only 145 of the country’s 330 townships, fewer than half. The Union Election Commission declared in September that voting would not take place in 56 townships deemed “not conducive,” while the two phases announced thus far cover only 202 townships.Junta efforts to retake territory from the armed resistance ahead of the elections has involved repeated airstrikes on civilians and civilian infrastructure that amount to war crimes. China and Russia, the junta’s primary suppliers of aircraft and arms, are both backing the election. The two countries have long supported the junta while blocking international action on military atrocities at the United Nations Security Council.Military abuses and spiraling conflict have internally displaced over 3.5 million people and left about 20 million in need of humanitarian assistance. Independent media and civil society groups have reported that junta authorities have pressured displaced people and prisoners to vote, as well as increasing checkpoints and digital surveillance.The 2021 coup effectively ended the country’s halting and limited democratic transition under Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD). During general elections in November 2020, the NLD secured 82 percent of contested seats, roundly defeating the military proxy Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP). In response, the military alleged widespread voter fraud, an unfounded claim rejected by the Union Election Commission and international and domestic election observers.Early on February 1, 2021, when the new parliament was to sit for the first time, the military detained President Win Myint, Aung San Suu Kyi, and scores of other NLD ministers, members of parliament, and regional administrators, thereby depriving Myanmar’s people of their right to choose their government as enshrined in international law.In the months following the coup, the junta arrested at least 197 ministers and members of parliament and 154 Union Election Commission officials. Suu Kyi and Win Myint are serving prison sentences of 27 and 8 years, respectively, on a slew of fabricated charges.In January 2023, the junta enacted a new Political Party Registration Law designed to disqualify senior NLD members from participating in elections, violating international standards on the rights of political parties to organize and for their candidates to run for election. In March that year, the junta announced the NLD was among 40 political parties and other groups dissolved for failing to register under the new law. The junta disbanded four additional parties in September 2025 for failing to meet the law’s requirements.The junta had previously declared the opposition National Unity Government and its parliamentary body, the Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw, as “terrorist organizations.” Opposition groups have made clear they oppose any election under the junta.After the coup, the junta replaced the civilian Union Election Commission with a military-appointed body. The European Union has sanctioned the current chair, Than Soe, appointed on July 31, 2025, and other junta commission members for being “directly involved in actions undermining democracy and the rule of law in Myanmar.” Before the coup, Than Soe led the military bloc in parliament’s upper house. Under the 2008 Constitution, the military appoints 25 percent of parliamentary seats.On July 31, in preparation for the elections, the junta announced the formation of the State Security and Peace Commission to replace the State Administration Council, in place since the coup. It also declared a new state of emergency and martial law orders for 63 townships in Chin, Kachin, Karen (Kayin), Karenni (Kayah), Rakhine, and Shan States, and Magway, Mandalay, and Sagaing Regions, which were extended for another 90 days on October 31. The orders, issued primarily for townships under opposition control, transfer the “powers and responsibilities of the said townships to the Commander-in-Chief.”In November 2024, the International Criminal Court prosecutor requested an arrest warrant for Commander-in-Chief Min Aung Hlaing for alleged crimes against humanity committed in 2017.The junta has sought to crush all political opposition, derail any possible establishment of democratic civilian rule, and obtain legitimacy for a military-controlled state, Human Rights Watch said. It has laid the groundwork for elections dominated by the military-backed USDP. While the official 60-day campaign period began on October 28, the military proxy party’s campaigning was already well underway. The junta has reportedly banned campaign processions.At the October summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for a “a credible path back to civilian rule” in Myanmar, stating: “I don’t think anybody believes that those elections will be free and fair.” Volker Türk, the UN high commissioner for human rights, called holding the elections in December “unfathomable.”While ASEAN highlighted that peace and political dialogue “must precede elections,” the regional body lacks the tools to preclude individual member states from providing technical assistance or support bilaterally.“Malaysia, Japan, and other Asian governments that have made clear these elections are harmful to Myanmar’s people should urge their neighbors to do the same,” Pearson said. “Counterbalancing any support from China, Russia, and other countries backing the polls will require a clear, emphatic message that these illegitimate elections will only entrench Myanmar’s descent into violence, repression, and autocratic rule.”