The Irrawaddy
Elections 2026South Asia / The Irrawaddy
Philippines Foreign Secretary Theresa Lazaro tells reporters that some ASEAN member states see the vote as potentially positive, but stressed this did not amount to formal backing.
After the partys knockout performance in the polls, speculation is growing that the former hardline cop could become presidentbut is he more than the eternal enforcer?
Sitagu Sayadaw says his 2017 sermon to army officers likening non-Buddhists to animals was taken directly from scripture and he could not care less about the ICJ.
Beijings backing of the juntas election lays bare Chinas priority: stability over democracy in Myanmar.
Myanmars incoming legislature will be dominated by retired officers, junta ministers and ultranationalists after the USDPs sweeping election victory.
Attacks on civilians surged in 2025 as the regime used violence to crush dissent before staging a fraudulent vote, international human rights watchdogs say.
Bangkok urges dialogue and restraint as ASEAN weighs its response to Myanmars junta-run vote.
This week our editors discuss the glaring contrast between Theravada monks popular Walk for Peace across the U.S. and the silent, co-opted clergy in junta-ruled Myanmar.
Reuters and Amnesty probes reveal the sanctions-busting fuel supply behind a bombing campaign that killed more than 2,000 people last year.
A coordinated resistance offensive has been bogged down around the transport node of Penwegon since the middle of January amid relentless artillery fire from the junta.
Lt Gen Tun Tun Naung has been reassigned to military duties in an ongoing shakeup seen as shoring up loyalty in the ranks before transition to a nominally civilian government.
From tour guide to tycoon, Aung Myo Min Dins rise tracks Myanmars early 2000s tourism boomand the military ties, land seizures and controversies that followed.
Nationalist activists and monks rally as Myanmar faces genocide allegations in The Hague over its 2017 crackdown on the Rohingya.
Prominent chiefs of opposition parties crushed as military-backed USDP claims landslide victory.
Zaw Win Myint and Myo Moe Aung have been dispatched as envoys to Russia and China as punishment for military popularity and scam ties, respectively, say analysts
Beijing is delighted with the regime-rigged poll, its Foreign Ministry says, and claims voters turned out in droves.
From threats to hands-on harassment by local apparatchiks, tales of coercion abound in Sundays third and final phase of the regime-rigged polls.
Military-proxy party claims 80 percent of constituencies overall amid complaints of irregularities and international condemnation.
Fighting across nearly all regions covered by Phase 3 vote exposed the regimes so-called election as an exercise to cement military rule rather than win public legitimacy.
Voting marred nationwide as residents stayed away, polling stations fell silent and fighting disrupted the poll, which the junta nonetheless branded a success.
Yangons Tamwe constituency returned resounding victory for the National League for Democracy politician in 2015 and 2020, but no more than 10 percent of voters turned out this time.
Across Myanmars remaining townships, few voters went to the polls today, even though the regime went all out to publicize the election. Follow the days stories here.
Even before toppling Myanmars democratically elected government, Min Aung Hlaing was persona non grata in many countries. Now the election is supposed to grant him legitimacy.
Myanmar wraps up its stage-managed election today, a move designed to cement military rule five years after the coup.

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