UN human rights chief calls regime’s 2025-26 elections ‘unfathomable’

Citizens in regime-controlled areas of Myanmar face a dilemma as the military enforces a new law punishing election boycotts with imprisonment or death, while resistance groups have established their own governance structures and will not allow regime polls to take place in territory under their control.

The U.N. Human Rights Chief Volker Türk has described the notion of Myanmar’s military regime holding free and fair elections from December 2025 to January 2026 as “unfathomable.”

“The situation in Myanmar, unfortunately, does not get enough media attention, and people have been suffering,” said Türk, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, during an interview with Agence France-Presse (AFP) on Monday.

Pro-democracy groups, including the National League for Democracy (NLD), which was ousted from government on Feb. 1, 2021 during the military coup, have called the regime polls a “sham.”