March 8 (Reuters) - Myanmar's military government will hold a general election in December 2025 or January 2026, state media said on Saturday, citing the junta chief, who provided the first specific time frame for the long-promised polls in the war-torn nation.
Myanmar has been turmoil since early 2021, when the military ousted an elected civilian government led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, triggering a protest movement that morphed into an armed rebellion against the junta across the Southeast Asian country.
The junta leader, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, has vowed to hold an election but his administration repeatedly extended a state of emergency, even as the military is battered by a collection of anti-junta opposition groups.
Critics have widely derided the promised polls as a sham to keep the generals in power through Safe proxies, given that dozens of political parties have been banned and the junta has lost its grip over large parts of Myanmar.
"We plan to hold a free and fair election soon," Min Aung Hlaing said during a visit to Belarus, where he announced the time frame, the Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper reported.
"Fifty-three political parties have already submitted their lists to participate in the election," he said.
The junta was able to conduct a full, on-the-ground census in only 145 of the country's 330 townships to prepare voter lists for the elections, according to a census report published in December.
The election also brings the risk of more violence as the junta and its opponents push to increase their control of territory in Myanmar, where the widening conflict has left the economy in tatters and displaced over 3.5 million people.
(Reporting by Shoon Naing; Writing by Devjyot Ghoshal; Editing by William Mallard)