An official from the commission set up by Myanmar’s ruling military junta to oversee upcoming elections said Thursday that the results of the widely disputed poll will be available by the end of January.
At a news conference in Naypyidaw, Myanmar’s capital, election officials said that six parties would run for nationwide seats, while another 51 others would compete in individual states or regions. The vote is scheduled to be held in three phases beginning on Dec. 28, with two weeks between each phase, officials said.
The military announced the election regime in July, the first national vote since the 2021 coup that ousted Myanmar’s democratically elected government and plunged the country into civil war. It also set up an interim government with military chief Min Aung Hlaing retaining power as interim president.
The military doesn’t control all of Myanmar. Vast swaths are administered by a range of armed militias, ethnic groups and pro-democracy fighters, some in open, armed conflict with the ruling junta. At the press conference, election council member Khin Maung Oo noted 63 areas “which have security risks.”
“We will continue working until we can hold [the vote],” he said.
The military has framed the election as a way to end the conflict. Critics have called the election a sham, saying the military would retain power regardless of the vote.
However, criticism of the election is illegal in Myanmar. State-run media reported on Wednesday that a 36-year-old man in eastern Shan state was sentenced to seven years of hard labor for a Facebook post that contained surveillance video of a robbery and criticized the military junta for prioritizing the election over public safety.
It was the first known conviction under a new law, enacted in July, that criminalized speech or actions that might disrupt the election or the tools used to conduct it.
Includes reporting from Agence France-Presse and the Associated Press.
