General elections were held in Myanmar for elected seats in the Amyotha Hluttaw and the Pyithu Hluttaw of the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw in three phases, beginning on 28 December 2025 and concluding on 25 January 2026. The election is being held by Myanmar's military junta that came to power after the 2021 military coup d'état. Though military ruler Min Aung Hlaing initially promised to hold the election by August 2023, the military repeatedly delayed the election in the face of increasing violence.

Following the coup, the military ruled the country under a state of emergency, initially declared by Acting President Myint Swe for one year and extended seven times by six-month periods, which expired on 31 July 2025. The constitution requires elections be held within six months of the end of the state of emergency. Min Aung Hlaing provided different time frames for the election three times before the December date was confirmed. The election was expected to be a sham process intended to legitimize continued military rule. A census used for the election was conducted in October 2024.

In January 2023, the military enacted a new electoral law tightening the requirements for party registration, banning the participation of people convicted of a crime including Aung San Suu Kyi and Win Myint, and switching from a first-past-the-post to a mixed-member proportional system for the Amyotha Hluttaw election. Analysts see the changes as intended to improve the electoral performance of the military proxy Union Solidarity and Development Party, which performed poorly in the free and fair 2020 election. Most opposition to the USDP will be seriously weakened under the new rules. Added to the previously existing 25% reserved seats to the military, the switch to proportional representation would allow it to govern with a lower share of the popular vote. The National League for Democracy (NLD), which was removed from power in the coup, announced in February 2023 that it would not register under the new law, and was declared dissolved by the Union Election Commission (UEC) the following month. The second-largest opposition party, the Shan Nationalities League for Democracy (SNDP), similarly announced it would not participate in the election. Partial official results for began to be released in January by the UEC, with an overwhelming majority of seats won by the USDP.

Background For most of its independent history, Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, has been ruled by the Tatmadaw. Initially, under Ne Win and his Burma Socialist Programme Party, followed by a military junta. Myanmar entered a semi-democratic state in the early 2010s, which culminated in the 2015 elections, in which democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi was elected State Counsellor and her party, the National League for Democracy, won a resounding victory.

2020 election performance Min Aung Hlaing openly questioned the validity of the 2020 election on the eve of the November election. After casting his ballot, he vowed to accept the election results. The Tatmadaw (military)-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) lost more seats in both chambers of the national legislature against the NLD, which won another landslide victory in the 2020 general elections. Election results were regarded as credible by both domestic and foreign observers, who found no significant anomalies.

Nonetheless, the military claimed the vote was fraudulent, citing 8.6 million irregularities in voter lists. Unable to support the military's claims, the Union Election Commission dismissed the military's fraud accusations on 28 January 2021.

2021 military coup The military initiated a coup on 1 February 2021. Suu Kyi, President Win Myint, and other important people were taken into custody. After assuming power, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing established a junta known as the State Administration Council (SAC). A one-year state of emergency was proclaimed, and Myint Swe was named interim president. With the ultimate objective of holding "a free and fair multiparty democracy election," the SAC unveiled a five-point roadmap in late February.

Aung San Suu Kyi received a number of frivolous charges, including breaching emergency COVID-19 laws, illegally importing and using walkie-talkies, violating the National Disaster Law, violating communications laws, inciting public unrest, and violating the official secrets act. On 6 December 2021, she was sentenced to four years in prison, but Min Aung Hlaing commuted her sentence to two years. Her conviction complicates her ability to hold public office.

On 1 August 2021, Min Aung Hlaing formed a caretaker government, and declared himself Prime Minister, whilst remaining the Chairman of the SAC.

The Tatmadaw originally promised to hold the elections when the state of emergency expired on 1 February 2022, but pushed back the elections first to 2023, and then delayed them indefinitely.

Dissolution of the NLD On 21 May 2021, the junta-appointed Union Election Commission announced plans to permanently dissolve the National League for Democracy. NLD offices were occupied and raided by police authorities, starting on 2 February. Documents, computers and laptops were forcibly seized, and the NLD called these raids unlawful. On 9 February, police raided the NLD headquarters in Yangon. Aung San Suu Kyi has commented on the possibility of her party's forced dissolution saying, "Our party grew out of the people so it will exist as long as people support it."

In January 2022, the junta reversed its plan to dissolve the NLD, with spokesman Zaw Min Tun saying that the NLD will decide whether to stand in the 2023 election. In February 2023, the NLD announced it would not re-register as a political party under a strict new electoral law enacted by the junta the previous month. The electoral commission automatically disbanded NLD, along with 39 other parties, on 28 March 2023.

Electoral system

Prior to 2022, Myanmar only used the first-past-the-post system, which allows a candidate to win an election with a plurality of votes in a constituency. However, on 16 June 2022 during a press conference in Naypyidaw, Khin Maung Oo, a member of the Union Election Commission, announced that the nation would switch to a proportional representation system for the upcoming election.

Existing system

In the existing system, the national legislature, the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw, consists of 498 seats elected in single-member constituencies, and 166 seats reserved for military appointees.

The Pyithu Hluttaw is elected every five years. It is the lower house. It has 440 MPs, 330 of which are elected in single-member constituencies, one for each township. A further 110 members (one quarter) are appointed by the Tatmadaw.

The Amyotha Hluttaw is elected every five years. It is the upper house. It has 224 MPs, 168 of which are elected in single-member constituencies, 12 in each state or region. A further 56 members (one quarter) are appointed by the Tatmadaw.

In Myanmar, it is not uncommon for elections to be cancelled partially or completely in some constituencies due to insurrection.

Following the inauguration of the new lawmakers, the President and the two Vice-Presidents of Myanmar are chosen by the Presidential Electoral College, which is composed of MPs from three committees: one consisting of elected members from each house of the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw and one consisting of members appointed by the military. After one candidate has been recommended by each committee, the Assembly votes. Depending on their total number of votes, the candidates are elected to the following positions: President, First Vice-President, and Second Vice-President.

Under Article 59(f) of the 2008 Constitution, individuals are disqualified from the presidency if they, their parents, spouse, or children "owe allegiance to a foreign power." As Aung San Suu Kyi’s late husband and two children are British citizens, this provision rendered her ineligible for the office.

Critics and members of the National League for Democracy (NLD) have characterized this clause as a specific measure designed by the former military junta to prevent her from holding the presidency. Following the NLD's victory in the 2015 Myanmar general election, the party created the post of State Counsellor of Myanmar for Aung San Suu Kyi, allowing her to function as the de facto head of government. During this period, President Win Myint (and his predecessor Htin Kyaw) maintained a close working relationship with Aung San Suu Kyi. Although constitutional authority rested with the President, it was widely acknowledged by observers and the NLD itself that Aung San Suu Kyi exercised primary leadership over the executive branch.

Revisions to the existing system In December 2021, the junta-appointed Union Electoral Commission convened with 60 political parties on the electoral system. The cohort determined that it would be advisable to switch to a system of party-list proportional representation (PR). The largest remainder method will be used, and the lists will be closed, although there may be a switch to open lists "when the level of education of the electorate and the political tide rises". The townships will be merged into districts for constituencies.

Observers and anti-junta factions have criticised the change in the electoral system as politically motivated, aimed at increasing the junta's electoral performance. In 2014, the Amyotha Hluttaw had previously approved a switch to the PR system, but it was not pursued further by the Pyithu Hluttaw for being "unconstitutional." The PR system also implies larger multi-member constituencies, which could enable the military to avoid having to cancel elections in insecure regions.

On 26 January 2023, the military junta issued the Political Parties Registration Law to force political parties to re-register within 60 days, or face automatic dissolution. The law also introduced new financial (possessing at least in funds), party membership (having 100,000 members, an increase from 1,000), and logistical requirements (contesting half of all constituencies and operating party offices in half of all townships), effectively aimed at limiting electoral participation to few national parties like the USDP. The NLD, SNLD, and 38 other parties were disbanded by the law on 28 March.https://www.moi.gov.mm/moi:eng/news/18679

+ System method Pyithu Hluttaw Amyotha Hluttaw The State and Region Hluttaws The ethnic constituencies for State and Region Hluttaws FPTP 330 84 322 29 PR 84 42 Total 330 (75%) 168 (75%) 364 (74,6%) 29 Military appointed 110 (25%) 56 (25%) ~124 (25,4%) rowspan=2 Total 440 224 ~488

Conduct The election is expected by independent analysts and foreign bodies, including those at the United Nations, Human Rights Watch, and the US State Department, to be neither free nor fair, and rather a sham process intended to legitimise further military rule.

The Union Election Commission (UEC) organises and oversees in Myanmar. During the 2021 coup, Hla Thein, the civilian-appointed UEC chair, was arrested by military authorities and subsequently sentenced to prison. The military junta replaced him with Thein Soe, a former military general who had previously overseen the 2010 Myanmar general election. Some have expressed concerns about the Tatmadaw's willingness to hold free and fair elections.

Although the past three elections in Myanmar have been semi-free, there have been concerns over such things as irregularities in voter lists, misinformation, fake news, and the vilification of Burmese Muslims. In addition, under the military-designed 2008 Constitution, the military is effectively guaranteed one vice presidency, and a quarter of the seats in both chambers of the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw, veto power over voter-elected legislators, as well as a third of the seats in all state and regional Hluttaws, and key ministries.