Myanmar's Sham Parliament Convenes: Military Tightens Grip Five Years After Coup

NAYPYIDAW — Myanmar's military junta convened a new parliament on Monday for the first time since the 2021 coup, orchestrating a tightly controlled political theater designed to legitimize its rule even as a brutal civil war continues to tear the country apart.

The assembly, dominated by the military and its proxy party, marks the culmination of an electoral process that the international community and human rights organizations have universally condemned as fraudulent.

In the lower house, the pro-military Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) claimed 339 seats, while an additional 166 seats were constitutionally reserved for active-duty military personnel. Khin Yi, a former general and police chief known for his hardline stance against dissent, was elected as the lower house speaker.

THE NEW SUPERBODY — The convening of parliament coincided with the creation of a new "Union Consultative Council," a powerful overarching body designed to permanently entrench the authority of junta chief Min Aung Hlaing above the nominal civilian government.

The political maneuvering takes place in a vacuum of legitimate opposition. The National League for Democracy (NLD), which won a landslide victory in the annulled 2020 elections, remains dissolved and barred from political participation. Its leader, Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, continues to serve a 27-year sentence in military custody.

INTERNATIONAL REJECTION — The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) swiftly indicated it would not recognize the election results or the newly convened parliament, maintaining its diplomatic freeze on the junta.

Human Rights Watch described the proceedings as "sham elections designed to put a civilian mask on a military dictatorship," noting that voting could not be held in vast areas of the country due to ongoing conflict.

A NATION AT WAR — The stark contrast between the sterile halls of parliament in Naypyidaw and the reality on the ground could not be more pronounced. The military junta continues to face fierce resistance from a coalition of ethnic armed organizations and anti-coup People's Defense Forces (PDFs).

Large swaths of Myanmar, particularly in the border regions and rural heartlands, remain entirely outside military control. The junta has responded to territorial losses with increasingly indiscriminate violence against civilian populations.

According to conflict monitors, February 2026 saw 849 armed attacks across the country, including 224 military airstrikes that resulted in the deaths of at least 192 civilians.

As the new parliament begins its session, the junta's attempt to transition from emergency rule to a "disciplined democracy" appears entirely disconnected from a nation locked in a grinding war of attrition.