YANGON, Myanmar, Jan 25, 2026 (BSS/AFP) - Myanmar holds the final round of its month-long election on Sunday, with the dominant pro-military party on course for a landslide in a junta-run vote critics say will prolong the army's grip on power. Tropical Myanmar has a long history of military rule, but the generals took a back seat for a decade of civilian-led reforms. That ended in a 2021 military coup when democratic figurehead Aung San Suu Kyi was detained, civil war broke out, and the country descended into a humanitarian crisis. With Suu Kyi sidelined and her hugely popular party dissolved, democracy advocates say the ballot is stacked with military allies. Nobel Peace Prize laureate Suu Kyi, 80, remains detained incommunicado at an unknown location on charges rights monitors dismiss as politically motivated.
