Translated by Annachiara Laino
In the final days of January 2026, Myanmar citizens faced the third round of voting in the national elections announced by the State Administrative Council (the country's ruling military junta). Announced in the summer of 2025, the elections attracted significant attention from other ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) countries and the international community at large. The last elections recognized as legitimate in Myanmar were held in December 2020, with the victory of the National League for Democracy (NLD), led by Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi. In February 2021, the Tatmadaw (the country's armed forces) declared the election results illegitimacy and launched a coup that deposed the NLD government, effectively placing state power in the hands of a military junta that legitimized itself by declaring a state of emergency in the country.
The return of military rule to the country after a brief civil interlude that began in 2015 also led to the resumption of sanctions (primarily from Europe and the United States), as well as condemnation from the international community. In an attempt to regain legitimacy, the military junta had promised the first elections as early as 2023, but growing instability in the country, due to the civil war and insurrections by armed rebel groups, has led to the military government's continued maintenance of a state of emergency and its continued hold on power.
For these reasons, the elections were highly anticipated, as they were seen as a potential moment of significant change in a country divided by civil war and a partial return to stability in one of the largest countries in the region.
Doubts about the elections' ability to restore stability in Myanmar emerged even before the election campaign began: due to the civil war and ethnic insurgencies, the central government has lost control over much of the country's territory (it is estimated that by 2025 the Tatmadaw would be able to exercise control over less than 40% of the country's territory), placing severe limits on citizens' ability to effectively take part in elections, in addition to the exclusion of more than sixty municipalities across the country for security reasons.
Furthermore, due to the conflict and the devastating earthquake of 2025, there are more than three million internally displaced people in Myanmar, many of whom require humanitarian aid to survive in a context where the military dictatorship hinders the distribution of international aid and the conflict conditions impede the organization of central support.
The crisis affecting much of the population posed the first major obstacle to the election's success, with the active electorate estimated at approximately one-third of the total eligible voters. This limitation was compounded by a package of "electoral protection laws" enacted by the junta last July, which allowed the military to take special measures, such as the death penalty, to silence government opponents, public protests, and increase existing journalistic censorship.
Mondo Internazionale APS - Riproduzione Riservata ® 2026