3/12/2025 Myanmar (International Christian Concern) — General Min Aung Hlaing, head of the military junta ruling Myanmar, has announced that the country will hold general elections either in December 2025 or in January 2026.
The move comes as part of a broader effort by the junta to shore up support from the international community while, at home, continuing a decades-long campaign of violence and intimidation against religious and ethnic minorities across the country.
The junta has repeatedly delayed the elections due to unrest in the country. Critics say that a free and fair election is still impossible — the military only controls a small fraction of the country and has spent the last four years eliminating political opposition, jailing proponents of democracy, and waging war against the civilian population.
Dozens of political parties have been banned, and the regime currently holds 22,000 political prisoners according to tallies kept by the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners. Many pro-democracy activists and members of minority communities have been executed.
In a recent attempt at a national census, the junta only surveyed 44% of the country’s townships — largely areas where the government already has support. Outlying areas are largely under the control of opposition forces.
Despite these criticisms, the junta hopes that conducting an election — unrepresentative as it might be — will bolster its case to the international community and unlock economic and diplomatic support from potential allies.
Myanmar is a patchwork mosaic of ethnic and religious groups. Though a strong majority of the population is ethnic Burman, and an even greater percentage is Buddhist, the communities that make up the remainder are well-established, well-organized, and for the most part predate the formation of the modern state by centuries.
In many cases, Myanmar’s ethnic minorities have taken on a distinct religious identity as well. About 20% to 30% of ethnic Karen are Christians, while other groups — such as the Chin — are more than 90% Christian. This overlap of ethnic and religious identity has created a volatile situation for believers.
Representing an extremist interpretation of Buddhism, the Burmese military has a long history of violence against the people of Myanmar, including against ethnic and religious minorities like the Muslim-majority Rohingya and Christian-majority Chin.
The junta is known to abduct children, forcing them to walk ahead of their troops through minefields. In many cases, their victims are members of ethnic and religious minority communities fighting back against the atrocities of a military that has waged a decades-long war of ethnic and religious cleansing.
Unfortunately, the Burmese military enjoys consistent support from Russia and China, which continue to support it economically and militarily despite sweeping international sanctions.
Despite this support, experts believe that the Burmese military is atrophying rapidly, with as few as 150,000 personnel remaining after the loss of about 21,000 through casualties or desertions since the 2021 coup. This number is significantly smaller than previous estimates of 300,000 to 400,000 people and calls into question the junta’s ability to sustain its nationwide military campaign, especially after a series of high-profile losses in recent months.
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