Myanmar’s junta chief said the country would hold an election in December or January, the first in the war-torn nation since the military staged a coup in 2021.

“We are planning to hold the election in December 2025 or … by January 2026,” General Min Aung Hlaing was quoted as saying in the state-run newspaper Global New Light of Myanmar published Saturday.

The vote would be “free and fair” he said on Friday during a state visit to Belarus, adding that 53 political parties had “submitted their lists” to participate.

“We also invite observation teams from Belarus to come and observe” the slated election, he said during a meeting with Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko in Minsk.

The Myanmar military seized power in 2021, making unsubstantiated claims of massive electoral fraud in 2020 polls won resoundingly by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD).

It has since unleashed a bloody crackdown on dissent and as fighting ravages swathes of the country had repeatedly delayed plans for fresh polls that critics say will be neither free nor fair.

The junta is struggling to crush widespread opposition to its rule from ethnic rebel groups and pro-democracy “People’s Defence Forces”.

– Repeated delays –

In 2022, the junta-stacked election commission announced that Suu Kyi’s NLD would be dissolved for failing to re-register under a tough new military-drafted electoral law.

Junta-appointed foreign minister Than Swe in December told delegates from five neighbouring countries at a meeting in Bangkok that “progress was being made” towards an election in 2025.

The junta in January extended an already-prolonged state of emergency by six months, eliminating the possibility of long-promised polls until the second half of the year at the earliest.

Southeast Asian foreign ministers in January told the junta to prioritise a ceasefire in its civil war over fresh elections during a meeting in Malaysia.

Min Aung Hlaing told his ruling military council in January that “peace and stability is still needed” before the state of emergency can be lifted and polls held.

The United States has said any elections under the junta would be a “sham”, while analysts say polls would be targeted by the military’s opponents and spark further bloodshed.

A joint statement by election experts published on the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance’s website in February said they “unequivocally reject” plans by Myanmar’s junta to hold an election in 2025.

More than 6,300 civilians have been killed since the coup, and more than 28,000 arrested, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) monitoring group.

The conflict has forced more than 3.5 million people to flee their homes, while an estimated 19.9 million people — or more than a third of Myanmar’s population — will need humanitarian aid in 2025, according to the UN.