Myanmar military regime 2025-26 elections special

The regime’s Union Election Commission (UEC) has scheduled elections in 274 out of Myanmar’s 330 townships with voting to take place in three phases: Dec. 28, Jan. 11, and Jan. 25, 2026. The National League for Democracy (NLD) party, which won landslide victories in the 2015 and 2020 elections, deemed free and fair by international election observers, was dissolved by the UEC for not re-registering.

State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi and President Win Myint have been held in detention since the military coup on Feb. 1, 2021. The NLD has stated that 102 party members, including two members of parliament elected in 2020, have been killed since 2021. It added that 1,905 of its members have been arrested, including 144 members of parliament elected in 2020.

Several NLD members, who were not arrested or killed by the military, have joined the National Unity Government (NUG). Both the NLD and the NUG have rejected the regime’s 2025-26 elections.

Naw Susanna Hla Hla Soe was an NLD member of parliament re-elected in 2020 but ousted from her job during the 2021 coup. She served from 2021-25 as the NUG Minister of Women, Youth and Children’s Affairs.