Progressive Voice condemns Myanmar junta’s “sham election plan”

Mizzima

Progressive Voice, a rights-based research and advocacy group, issued a new briefing paper on 3 November warning that Myanmar’s military junta is orchestrating a “sham election” on 28 December 2025 to legitimize its rule and entrench military dictatorship.

According to the report, the junta – which recently rebranded itself as the State Security and Peace Commission after lifting a repeatedly extended state of emergency – is seeking to use the vote to “manufacture false legitimacy” while escalating violence and repression across the country.

Progressive Voice said junta chief Min Aung Hlaing’s self-appointment as “acting president” and the inclusion of nine senior generals on the new body underline the military’s complete control over the process.

The paper documents sharp increases in airstrikes and civilian casualties as the junta tries to consolidate territory before the vote. At least 235 civilians were killed in 204 airstrikes in August alone, with schools, hospitals, and internally displaced persons (IDP) camps among frequent targets. The group estimates that since the 2021 coup attempt, the military has launched over 5,000 airstrikes, with attacks more than doubling in 2024 compared with the previous year.

The briefing also details a suite of repressive election laws that have dissolved opposition parties, criminalized dissent, and jailed dozens. The 2025 Law on the Protection of Multiparty Democratic Elections imposes punishments up to life imprisonment as well as the death penalty for loosely defined offenses. As of October, at least 64 people – including teenagers and prominent artists – had been arrested under the statute.

Progressive Voice said that the junta’s electoral mechanisms, including new electronic voting machines and bans on rallies, is designed to eliminate transparency. Martial law now covers 63 townships, and polls are already cancelled in 56 others under resistance control.