The following article is republished from IUF Asia Pacific. United Workers Union stands in solidarity with the people of Myanmar and joins IUF in calling for free and fair elections.
Only a third of the country will hold elections
The military-controlled Union Election Commission (UEC) declared that only 102 townships out of the country’s 330 townships will be included in the elections starting on 28 December 2025. That is only 31% of the total electoral constituencies.
Why is the other 69% excluded? Because the majority townships were liberated from military rule by the People’s Defence Force (PDF) and Ethnic Revolutionary Organizations (EROs) fighting to restore democracy. In addition, dozens of townships are under attack by the military. The ruling military junta is conducting aerial bombing – including bombing schools and homes – to take back control.
That is also why the so-called voting begins on 28 December 2025 as phase one and continues for two or three months. This is engineered to give the military more time to forcibly take control of more townships.
If the number if townships included by the military-controlled Union Election Commission (UEC) increases beyond 31% before 28 December or during the three-month election period, it is only because the junta has retaken control through military offensives against the people, at great cost to life.
Manipulating “opposition” parties
To make the elections starting on 28 December 2025 look real, Myanmar’s military junta will ensure there are “opposition” parties participating.
Under the Political Parties Registration Law created by the military government in January 2023, parties wanting to participate in the national elections must have at least 100,000 members and have offices in 110 out of 330 townships. With all pro-democracy political parties already declared illegal and banned as “terrorist” organizations, how is a real opposition party possible?
Severe restrictions on freedom imposed by the military in occupied townships and military offensives against civilian populations across the country means that openly recruiting 100,000 members and opening over 100 offices is impossible. Only political parties collaborating with the military can do this.
To engineer the appearance of many political parties joining the elections, the military junta’s Political Parties Registration Law allows regional parties to register. These are parties that can join local elections but not national elections. These regional parties must have at least 1,000 members and offices in five townships.
Possibly 40 regional parties are now registered, but many have no candidates and their office is just an address on paper. Again, collusion with the military is the only way to be registered. The military junta seems confident that these puppet political parties at regional or state level will help give the appearance of genuine elections.
Military generals join the party (in addition to guaranteed seats)
The military junta will orchestrate its election victory through the military’s own political party, the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP).
When the elections begin on 28 December 2025, more than 20 ministers and top leaders in the military junta will participate as candidates through the USDP. This includes both retired military generals and at least 11 serving generals currently holding senior positions in the military regime.
As of today 489 military officers of all ranks joined the USDP to overwhelmingly “win” these engineered elections.
While these military officers give the appearance of contesting the engineered elections as USDP candidates, the outcome is already guaranteed.
The Myanmar military’s insurance policy in the face of “democratic” elections has always been its guaranteed seats in parliament: seats reserved for the military.
In the Lower House, 110 of the 330 seats (30%) are up for election are reserved for the military. In the Upper House, 56 of the 168 seats (33%) up for election are reserved for the military.
So in addition to military generals and retired military generals running in the sham elections as USDP candidates, the military will also appoint senior military officers to its reserved seats.