Myanmar unable to hold inclusive elections: Junta chief

• Min Aung Hlaing publicly accepts for 1st time that elections cannot be inclusive
• General election's first phase to be held Dec. 28

ISTANBUL

Myanmar's junta chief said Wednesday that the upcoming elections cannot be held 100% in the country, according to DVB TV.

“We can’t hold the election everywhere 100%,” Min Aung Hlaing said in a speech that was broadcast on state media, reported by DVB TV.

The general election's first phase is scheduled for Dec. 28.

He said by-elections would follow in some areas after the new military government is formed.

The remarks were the first time he publicly accepted that the election cannot be inclusive.

Myanmar's electoral authority announced last month that elections would not be held in dozens of constituencies.

The country invited the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries to send observers for the election during Min Aung Hlaing's meeting with the visiting Malaysian Foreign Minister Mohamad Hasan on Oct. 9.

The last general elections in the Buddhist-majority southeast Asian country were held in November 2020. It was won by the National League of Democracy (NLD), led by jailed Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. But her government was overthrown in a military coup in February 2021.

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

The 2021 military takeover plunged the country into more than four years of emergency rule.