YANGON: Myanmar’s junta said Monday that long-promised elections will start on December 28, despite a raging civil war that has put much of the country out of its control, and international monitors slating the poll as a charade.
Myanmar has been consumed by conflict since the military deposed the government of democratic leader Aung San Suu Kyi in 2021, making unsubstantiated allegations of electoral fraud.
Swathes of the country are beyond military control — administered by a myriad of pro-democracy guerrillas and powerful ethnic armed organizations which have pledged to block polls in their enclaves.
“The first phase of the multi-party democratic general election for each parliament will begin on Sunday 28 December 2025,” Myanmar’s Union Election Commission said in a statement.
“Dates for the subsequent phases will be announced later,” the statement added.
Myanmar’s civil war has killed thousands, left more than half the nation in poverty, and more than 3.5 million people living displaced.
The junta has touted elections as a way to end the conflict and offered cash rewards to opposition fighters willing to lay down their arms ahead of the vote.
However Suu Kyi remains jailed, while many opposition lawmakers ousted by the coup are boycotting it and a UN expert has branded the vote a “fraud” designed to rebrand continuing military rule.
Junta chief Min Aung Hlaing is currently ruling Myanmar as acting president, also serving as the chief of the armed forces which has ruled the country for most of its post-independence history.
Analysts say the election will likely see Min Aung Hlaing maintain his power over any new government.
Meanhile, they say, the vote may cause further splits in already fractious array of opposition groups as they weigh whether to participate in the poll.
A census held last year as preparation for the election estimated it failed to collect data from 19 million of the country’s 51 million people, provisional results said.
The results cited “significant security constraints” as one reason for the shortfall — giving a sign of how limited the reach of the election may be amid the civil war.
Myanmar junta sets December 28 poll date despite raging civil war
https://arab.news/cnpz7
Myanmar junta sets December 28 poll date despite raging civil war
- Myanmar has been consumed by conflict since the military deposed the government of democratic leader Aung San Suu Kyi in 2021, making unsubstantiated allegations of electoral fraud
Nigeria govt critic detained by anti-corruption agency
Abuja: Nigeria’s anti-corruption agency said Tuesday it was questioning opposition politician Nasir El-Rufai, a prominent critic of President Bola Tinubu.
The authorities launched court proceedings on Monday against El-Rufai, a former governor of Kaduna state, after he said on Nigerian television he had tapped the phone of Tinubu’s national security adviser.
Local media said he was being questioned about the alleged misuse of 432 billion naira ($319 million) during his stint as governor of Kaduna between 2015 and 2023.
He was summoned to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and appeared voluntarily, EFCC spokesman Dele Oyewale told AFP on Tuesday.
“He was invited and he honored the invitation,” Oyewale said. “He is being interviewed now.”
El-Rufai told TV channel Arise News on Friday he had intercepted calls from Tinubu’s aide Nuhu Ribadu, whom he accused of using the security services as his “personal tools.”
He also said the west African country’s domestic intelligence agency, DSS, had tried to arrest him at Abuja airport the day before but he had refused to go with them.
El-Rufai, who recently declared that he was still considering whether to challenge Tinubu in the 2027 presidential election, said the anti-corruption commission had “procured the DSS to abduct me for them.”
“This is their modus operandi. They are personal tools of Nuhu Ribadu,” he said.
At the weekend, he posted on X a letter addressed to Ribadu asking the latter to explain an alleged delivery of 10 kilogrammes of thallium sulphate, a highly toxic chemical.
Another senior member of El-Rufai’s opposition African Democratic Congress (ADC) party, former justice minister Abubakar Malami, is also facing legal proceedings over allegations of terrorism and money-laundering.
