It's a critical development expected in India's neigbourhood.
A new election protection law slaps 'death penalty' for those opposing the election process !!
The ruling junta in Myanmar says the heavily restricted polls on Dec 28, 2025 and in two other phases are a return to democracy !!
India's lapses have earlier pushed Myanmar closer to China.
Myanmar shares a long land and maritime boundary with India.
'Disengagement' between India and Myanmar - not advisable.
Myanmar sits at the junction of South and Southeast Asia and will be a major player vis-a-vis New Delhi's 'Act East Policy'.
Three key electioneering in India's neighbourhood in 2026 :
Myanmar, Bangladesh (Feb 2026) and possibly also Nepal.
The military-backed Union Solidarity and Development party has fielded the largest number of candidates and is in effect running uncontested in dozens of constituencies.
The first of three rounds of voting is due to begin at on Dec 28th.
More than 100 townships, including the commercial capital of Yangon, will vote in this first phase of the elections, followed by another 100 in the second phase on Jan 11, 2026.
The third round of voting will take place on Jan 25.
Voting will be held in phases, on December 28 in 102 townships.
** January 11 - in 100 townships
and January 25 --- in 63 townships, covering a total of 265 townships out of a total of 330.
There will be 57 parties on the ballot; but the majority are perceived as being linked to or dependent on the military. Only six parties are running nationwide.
The UN, several countries and rights groups have described the polls as a sham designed to keep generals in power through proxies.
India keeping a closer look.
ASEAN’s diplomatic approach, driven by its Five-Point Consensus envisaged a national dialogue between the two contending sides.
But this never materialised because the army and the Resistance saw each other as arch adversaries. The elections could yield a new set of leaders and forces that may seek to work on the middle ground to craft a possible solution.
***
Track record :
Myanmar's military held polls on May 27, 1990 with turnout at 73 percent.
There was a landslide victory for the National League for Democracy (NLD) med by Aug San Suu Kyi.
It captured 392 of the 485 seats in the Pyithu Hluttaw, in urban as well as rural areas.
The Shan Nationalities League for Democracy (SNLD) came second with 23 seats, the Mon Democratic Front (MDF) won five, and miscellaneous parties and independents 55.
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| Myanmar 1990 : People cast their vote |
Since the “wrong” party had won the 1990 elections, the rules had to change. On July 27, two months after the election, SLORC (basically junta) issued Announcement 1/90 declaring that only the junta “has the right to legislative power”—and that “the representatives elected by the people” would merely be “responsible for drafting a new constitution for a future democratic state.”
Within days of the announcement, Burma’s military intelligence service—which is more of a secret police force—launched a massive campaign against elected NLD MPs. By the end of the year, 65 had been arrested, nearly a dozen had fled to neighboring Thailand and India, and many resigned voluntarily.
Longtime Myanmar watcher Bertil Lintner says: "....the elected Pyithu Hluttaw was never convened. Instead, about 100 of the 485 MPs-elect were to sit in a “National Convention” together with 600 other, non-elected representatives who had been handpicked by the military to draft the new constitution.
It was not until 18 years later, in April 2008, that that task was eventually completed and a referendum held. As expected, it turned out to be blatantly fraudulent.
The ruling junta, now renamed the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), announced that the constitution had been approved by 92.4 per cent of voters". It even claimed a 99 per cent turnout in the regions where voting was said to have taken place.
The elections in Myanmar on dec 28 are being organised by Myanmar’s military authorities more than four years after they seized power in a 2021 coup.
Key figures, including former State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, were imprisoned. The crisis has since spiralled into widespread armed conflict, mass displacement and economic collapse.
Moreover there was a devastating earthquakes in March 2025.
Dozens of people have been detained under a new “election protection law” for expressing dissent. Some have received extremely harsh sentences, including three young people in Yangon’s Hlaingthaya Township who were jailed for between 42 and 49 years for hanging anti-election posters.
Prominent cultural figures have also been targeted. Film director Mike Tee, actor Kyaw Win Htut and comedian Ohn Daing were each sentenced to seven years in prison for “undermining public trust” after criticising a pro-election propaganda film.
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