On 28 December 2025 and 11 January 2026, Myanmar held the first two out of three scheduled rounds of the resumed nationwide parliamentary elections procedure. The country had not seen the elections conducted for more than five years.

On the Background to the Resumption of Parliamentary Elections in Myanmar

It is correct to speak specifically of a “resumption” of the principal mechanism of people’s will in the functioning of any state because the results of the previous parliamentary elections held in November 2020 were annulled just two months later by Myanmar’s armed forces leadership, headed by General Min Aung Hlaing. Once again (by no means for the first time during the country’s relatively short period of independence), the military concluded that the “civilian” authorities were failing to cope with the challenges the country was facing.

The senior military leadership was correct at least in assessing these challenges as extremely complex and hazardous for the very existence of the state. They were largely outlined in the commentary for the New Eastern Outlook in connection with the military coup that took place on 1 February 2021. The army leadership that came to power at that time spoke of the “temporary nature” of its assumption of governing functions, meaning that it did not deny the need for the country to be governed by professionally elected civilian authorities. In particular, there were statements about “preparations” for snap parliamentary elections, which were supposed to take place “within a year.”

However, the “electoral pause” stretched into five years, during which the internal political situation not only failed to get stabilised but became even more acute. In the autumn of 2023, the “Three Brotherhood Alliance” made its presence felt, adding a coordinated character to previously fragmented armed attacks by seemingly incompatible movements opposing military........

© New Eastern Outlook