Myanmar Junta’s 2025 Election Faces Threat of Mass Boycott

[geovalin]

 

GNLM

 

 

With just months to go before Myanmar’s long-delayed general election, registered political parties are voicing deep concern over what’s shaping up to be a widespread public boycott — a silent but potent act of defiance against military rule.

 

Speaking at a press conference in Yangon last week, People’s Pioneer Party chairwoman Thet Thet Khaing urged citizens to vote in December’s poll “so that it succeeds”. But many fear the election is already doomed to fail in the eyes of the people, who remain staunchly opposed to the military junta that seized power in 2021 and has ruled through violence and repression ever since.

 

The regime, which has struggled to maintain control beyond key cities like Mandalay and Naypyitaw, admitted that its pre-election census missed 19 million people — over a third of the population. Opposition parties and international observers see this as just one of many signs the planned vote is neither credible nor viable.

 

Despite promising elections since the coup, the junta has offered few details. The vote is now scheduled in phases through December and January, though the military has yet to specify electoral laws or constituencies.

 

The regime dissolved the National League for Democracy (NLD) — winners of the last legitimate election — and more than 40 other parties. Now, of the 77 parties that have registered under the junta, just 54 have been approved. Most are either new or minor parties that performed poorly in 2020.

 

“Even one vote is enough to legitimise the election,” said Sai Aik Pao, head of the Shan and Nationalities Democratic Party, echoing the junta’s thin legal justification. Others, like Than Than Nu of the Democratic Party, cautiously support the process but admit public participation may be dangerously low.

 

Adding to the uncertainty is Myanmar’s deepening humanitarian crisis. Earthquake-hit regions remain in disarray, and the military’s recent airstrike on a Sagaing school — which killed 22 children — has only fuelled public fury.

 

Critics warn that the vote will spark further violence. “This election will invite bloodshed,” said U Aung Moe Zaw of the Democratic Party for a New Society. “Everyone knows it won’t solve anything — but the parties pretend otherwise.”

 

As fighting escalates and faith in the process fades, Myanmar’s election risks becoming not a path to peace, but a powder keg.

 

-2025-05-21