Myanmar’s junta holds election after years of civil warAFP, YANGON, MyanmarVoters yesterday trickled to Myanmar’s heavily restricted polls, with the ruling junta touting the exercise as a return to democracy five years after it ousted the last elected government and triggered a civil war. Former civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi remains jailed, while her hugely popular party has been dissolved and was not taking part. A woman walks past an election banner during the first phase of Myanmar’s general election in Yangon yesterday. “We guarantee it to be a free and fair election,” junta chief Min Aung Hlaing told reporters after casting his ballot in the capital, Naypyidaw. At a downtown Yangon station near the gleaming Sule Pagoda — the site of huge pro-democracy protests after the 2021 coup — 45-year-old Swe Maw dismissed international criticism.

Source: Taipei Times December 28, 2025 16:07 UTC