Across the blood-stained landscape of Myanmar, a carefully choreographed political theater is unfolding under the guise of the 2025-2026 general election. This process, orchestrated by the military junta’s State Security and Peace Commission (SSPC), is being conducted in three distinct phases: the first commenced on Dec. 28, 2025, the second on Jan. 11, 2026, and the final installment is set for Jan. 25, 2026. 

Far from a genuine exercise in democratic will, the international community has largely dismissed the event as a “sham” intended to provide a thin layer of legitimacy to a regime that seized power through a violent coup in February 2021. An article from the International Crisis Group notes that these elections are not a popular consultation but a procedural mechanism to shift from a state of emergency back to constitutional rule on the junta’s own terms.