NAYPYIDAW, March 8: Myanmar Prime Minister Min Aung Hlaing has announced that the country’s military junta plans to hold elections by December 2025, or January 2026 at the latest. The announcement was made during Hlaing’s visit to Belarus and was reported by state media on Saturday.

In his statement, Hlaing explained that the elections were a response to the alleged electoral fraud in the 2020 general elections, which prompted the military to declare a state of emergency and take temporary control of the country. “We plan to hold a free and fair election soon, under the law,” he said, adding that 53 political parties had already submitted their lists to participate in the upcoming elections. He also invited Belarusian observation teams to monitor the process.

Hlaing further noted that political parties would be allowed to launch their campaigns only once peace and stability could be maintained in the country. He pointed out that the regime had lost significant portions of northern Shan State, Rakhine, Kachin, Kayah (Karenni), Karen, and Chin states, as well as central Myanmar, to rebel groups. In response, the military junta had been conducting airstrikes in 13 regions and states, excluding Yangon Region.

Despite the promises to hold elections, the military junta’s plans have been met with widespread criticism both domestically and internationally. Critics argue that the election is a fraudulent attempt to cement the military’s rule, which ousted the democratically elected government in a coup on February 1, 2021. Myanmar’s former leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been held in an undisclosed location since the coup and is being tried in a closed court, with no access for observers. More than 10,000 political prisoners are believed to be detained by the military junta, with at least 175 reported deaths in custody, according to the United Nations human rights office.

The UN Special Rapporteur on Myanmar, Tom Andrews, condemned the junta’s actions, stating that the arrest and sentencing of Aung San Suu Kyi, along with thousands of other political prisoners, demonstrated the regime’s ongoing assault on the civil and political rights of the people of Myanmar. In a statement marking the fourth anniversary of the military coup, human rights experts mourned the loss of thousands of innocent lives at the hands of the junta, asserting that Myanmar remains under siege.

“The junta’s plans, including holding sham elections this year in a backdrop of escalating armed conflict and human rights violations, are a path to ruin,” Andrews warned.