Burma News International (BNI) blasted the junta, saying the military, which seized power through a coup and attempted to legitimize itself via a sham election, has produced a government that is nothing more than a ‘military sham government.’
A report titled ‘Voters with No Choice’, analyzing events in Myanmar’s ethnic areas during the last election, was released online on April 6, with BNI officials discussing its findings.
“We all know that the 2025 elections didn’t meet any democratic standards. We want to make it very clear: this was a process designed to impose a new form of military rule. The junta disqualified over 35 percent of eligible voters and pressured opposition parties to dissolve. It also used non-transparent early voting to ensure its proxy party came out on top. Put simply, this sham election was just a façade to look democratic. And the government that came out of it? It’s a sham government too. We will keep calling it exactly that—a military sham government,” said Ma Ahmee, a spokeswoman for BNI.
The junta-run elections, held in three rounds between December 2025 and January 2026, were entirely inconsistent with democratic norms and served only as a mechanism to extend military rule, BNI emphasized.
Daw Tin Tin Nyo, Managing Director of BNI, also noted that misusing elections—a democratic norm and a form of public representation—to create a government that does not reflect the public’s will is a grave insult to democracy. She added that the election was a sham, and the resulting administration is not a government accepted by the people.
The junta not only removed 35 percent of eligible voters nationwide but also failed to hold voting in many areas. It excluded numerous ethnic regions from the election process and ignored the voices of the people, BNI’s report highlighted.
“The public has clearly rejected this process, and as a result, the international community, including the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), has decided not to recognize the election results or the administration that came out of it. We want to urge the international community not to mistake these shifts for normal political developments. And we call for the voices of marginalized communities to be truly heard,” Ma Ahmee said.
The junta held elections in three rounds across 263 of Myanmar’s townships, while the remaining 67 were unable to hold voting. In addition, polling stations could not open in 216 wards and 3,682 village tracts within the 263 townships, according to BNI’s report.
In the 2020 election, Myanmar had 38 million eligible voters, but in the junta-held 2025–26 election, only 24.13 million were recognized as eligible, meaning over 13 million people were effectively stripped of their right to vote.
Min Aung Hlaing, the former junta leader who led the coup, declared himself elected president through the rubber-stamp parliament created by the sham election. He is also busy forming a new military sham government in civilian clothing, with 31 ministries.
