To make the elections starting on 28 December 2025 look real, Myanmar’s military junta will ensure there are “opposition” parties participating.
Under the Political Parties Registration Law created by the military government in January 2023, parties wanting to participate in the national elections must have at least 100,000 members and have offices in 110 out of 330 townships. With all pro-democracy political parties already declared illegal and banned as “terrorist” organizations, how is a real opposition party possible?
Severe restrictions on freedom imposed by the military in occupied townships and military offensives against civilian populations across the country means that openly recruiting 100,000 members and opening over 100 offices is impossible. Only political parties collaborating with the military can do this.
To engineer the appearance of many political parties joining the elections, the military junta’s Political Parties Registration Law allows regional parties to register. These are parties that can join local elections but not national elections. These regional parties must have at least 1,000 members and offices in five townships.
Possibly 40 regional parties are now registered, but many have no candidates and their office is just an address on paper. Again, collusion with the military is the only way to be registered. The military junta seems confident that these puppet political parties at regional or state level will help give the appearance of genuine elections.
