Poonam Sharma
Four years after Myanmar’s military crushed an elected government and plunged the country into chaos, the junta is once again using the language of democracy. The 2025 election, presented as a “roadmap back to civilian rule,” is being conducted in three phases amid ongoing conflict, repression, and fear. While the generals insist this vote marks a turning point, the United Nations, Western governments, and a large section of Myanmar’s own people see it very differently: not as a genuine election, but as a political drama staged to legitimize military rule.
To understand why this election is so widely dismissed, one must revisit the trauma of February 2021. The military, led by Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, overturned the results of the 2020 election, which the National League for Democracy (NLD) under Aung San Suu Kyi had won decisively. Allegations of voter fraud were never substantiated, but they provided a pretext for a coup that shattered Myanmar’s fragile democratic experiment. What followed was brutal repression that destroyed public trust in state institutions.
An Election Held Amid War, Fear, and Exclusion
Since the coup, Myanmar has not returned to normalcy. Instead, it has slid into an expanding civil conflict. Armed resistance groups linked to the National Unity Government operate across wide regions, while ethnic armed organizations have intensified long-running struggles against the military. Against this backdrop, the idea of a nationwide free and fair election appears deeply unrealistic.
The junta’s decision to conduct voting in three phases itself reveals the depth of the crisis. Large areas remain inaccessible due to fighting, and millions of internally displaced people are effectively excluded from the process. Security is enforced through military presence rather than public consent, turning polling stations into zones of intimidation rather than civic participation.
More significantly, Myanmar’s most popular political force, the NLD, has been eliminated from the political field. Its leaders are imprisoned, silenced, or barred from contesting elections, while Aung San Suu Kyi remains incarcerated following trials widely criticized as politically motivated. Without meaningful opposition, the election becomes a controlled exercise rather than a competitive choice.
Democracy in Name Only, Power Still with the Generals
The legal and constitutional framework surrounding the 2025 election ensures that real power remains firmly with the military. New electoral laws tightly restrict political activity and allow authorities to dissolve parties deemed threatening to “state stability.” Freedom of speech remains curtailed, and dissent is criminalized, making genuine campaigning nearly impossible.
International observers have responded with open skepticism. The United Nations and Western governments argue that an election conducted under repression, violence, and exclusion cannot be considered legitimate. Yet the junta appears less concerned about Western opinion than about projecting an image of normalcy to regional partners and domestic audiences.
For ordinary citizens, however, hope is scarce. Years of violence, economic hardship, and broken promises have produced widespread fear and disillusionment. Many see participation as either meaningless or dangerous, and view the election as an attempt to erase the unresolved reality of military domination.
Ultimately, elections do not create democracy on their own. Without civilian control of the military, an independent judiciary, and genuine political freedom, voting becomes little more than a ritual. Myanmar’s 2025 election may provide the junta with a narrative of legitimacy, but for a society still living under the shadow of guns and prisons, it represents not a return to democracy, but a reminder of how far it remains out of reach.
