A general election being promised by Myanmar’s regime will not be held until at least 2025.
Junta boss Min Aung Hlaing told his cabinet on September 1 that he plans to hold an election after a national census in October next year, suggesting voting he promised after the 2021 coup will not take place until 2025 at the earliest.
He told a cabinet meeting in August that ongoing armed conflicts were delaying any election planning.
The regime has taken active steps toward holding an election since it extended emergency rule for six more months in August. It has recently introduced changes to its five-point roadmap, with an election taking precedence over other objectives.
Min Aung Hlaing told his cabinet that the ultimate goal of the regime is to hold an election.
The junta-appointed Union Election Commission has demonstrated its Myanmar Electronic Voting Machine to Min Aung Hlaing.
Nearly 6,000 civil servants from 29 ministries have tried out the machines since February.
The UEC met 35 political parties in Yangon on September 5 to unveil the voting machines, saying they would reduce costs for ballot sheets and stop vote rigging.
Party leaders, including from the military proxy Union Solidarity and Development Party, the Shan Nationalities Democratic Party and Arakan Front Party chairman Dr Aye Maung attended the electronic voting machine demonstration.
The military staged its first coup in 1962 and an election was finally held in 1990, which the regime ignored. Only in 2015 did a general election have any credibility.
Foreign governments and Myanmar’s civilian National Unity Government said any voting held by the regime would be bogus and neither free nor fair.
Min Aung Hlaing has promised to hand over power to the party that wins an election.
