ISTANBUL

The Burmese election commission on Monday announced the general polls will be held in Myanmar on Dec. 28, state media reported.

The “multi-party democratic general election” will be held on Sunday, Dec. 28, later this year, MRTV reported, citing a notification by the Union Election Commission.

The last general elections in the Buddhist-majority Southeast Asian country were held in November 2020, won by the National League of Democracy (NLD), which was ousted in a military coup in February 2021.

The announcement of polls came after the military junta last month formed a commission to oversee general elections, effectively signaling the end of the state of emergency rule.

Junta chief Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing also appointed himself as acting president.

The 2021 military takeover ousted the elected government led by the NLD and plunged the country into more than four years of emergency rule.

U Myint Swe, who was appointed acting president by the junta in the wake of the coup in 2021, passed away early this month. He was 74.

Due to the illness of U Myint, Senior Gen. Min had proclaimed himself as president last month when he formed the commission to oversee elections.