ISTANBUL

Myanmar will hold elections this December or next January, said the country’s junta leader during a two-day visit to Belarus.

“We are planning to hold elections in December 2025 or at the earliest by January 2026,” senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing told a Friday joint press conference in the capital Minsk with Aleksandr Lukashenko, Belarus’ president, reported Myanmar’s state-run Global New Light daily.

“Fifty-three political parties have already submitted their lists to participate in the election,” he said, adding that the state will invite observation teams from Belarus to watch the process.

The military junta seized power in a 2021 coup from the government of Aung San Suu Kyi.