bombed a Football for Friendship match, killed at least 4 people and injured around 30 others.46 The
junta had been unable to hold polling in neither Wetlet nor Natogyi township, indicating that the regime
targeted civilians to force terrorized residents to flee to junta-controlled areas.
The final phase of the sham election, covering 17 - 30 Jan 2026, saw a 46% increase in civilian fatalities
as the regime punished people outside of voting areas. The regime conducted 155 airstrikes, almost
doubling the 84 airstrikes during Phase 1. On 22 Jan alone, the regime committed 2 massacres. In
Bhamo Township (Kachin State), the junta conducted airstrikes on residents preparing for a funeral
ceremony, killed 21 civilians and injured 28 others.47 Bhamo was included in Phase 3 polling. On the same
day, in Aunglan Township (Magway Region), junta airstrikes on a wedding reception killed at least 5
civilians. 48 Aunglan had already voted during Phase 1 of the sham polls. These incidents clearly showed
the junta’s intention to cause mass civilian fatalities.
Throughout its so-called “election”, the regime waged a targeted, violent, and deadly campaign against the
civilians of Burma. With such incriminating evidence of its escalating crimes, there is no chance the
regime intends to reduce or de-escalate violence in the post-polling period.
Armed clashes &
attacks on civilians
Airstrikes
Civilian Fatalities
No. Townships
Affected
425
84
84
122
475
109
80
125
388
155
117
102
1,288
308
281
N/A
20 Dec 2025 - 2 Jan 2026
(Phase 1 Vote: 28 Dec)
3 Jan 2026 - 16 Jan 2026
(Phase 2 Vote: 11 Jan)
17 Jan 2026 - 30 Jan 2026
(Phase 3 Vote: 25 Jan)
Total
Resistance to the sham polls
●
Resistance across Burma, both peaceful and armed, strongly rejected the sham polls.
●
From mass street protests, boycotts, and prison hunger strikes to lone defiance, the people
resisted.
●
Resistance forces disrupted polling activity nationwide, including targeting junta boss Min
Aung Hlaing.
Across all 3 phases of the junta’s sham election, resistance continued despite violence and crackdowns.
During the lead-up to, and during each voting phase, the people of Burma, resistance groups, the NLD and
other pro-democracy parties, and international stakeholders rejected the sham election through boycotts,
protests, and direct disruption of election preparations.
On 28 Dec (Phase 1 voting day), in Hpa-An, Hpapun, and Thaton townships (Karen and Mon states), around
7,500 locals marched to protest the sham election. 49 On the same day, political prisoners in Thayarwaddy,
Paungde, and Pyay prisons (Bago Region) launched hunger strikes and silent protests to oppose the
polls. 50 On 11 Jan 2026, in Kyauktada Township (Yangon Region), a brave, lone protester, 21-year-old Min
46
DVB (17 Jan 2026) နွာ်းထို်းကကီ်း က ချစ် ကည်တ ်းတဘာလို်းပွဲကို စစ် တပ်ဗို်းကကဲ၊ ၄ ဦ်းတသပပီ်း အမျာ်းအပပာ်း ဏ် ာ
47
BBC (23 Jan 2026) ဗန်းတမာ်-တကာင်ဂျာထီ်း လင်း ွ ာ တလတ ကာင်းဗို်းကကဲမ အတယာက် ၂၀ တကျာ်တ သဆို်း
48
DVB (23 Jan 2026) တအာင်လပမ ြို့နယ်၌ မဂဂလာတဆာင်မဏ္ဍပ် ကို စစ် တပ်ဗို်းကကဲ၊ ၅ ဦ်းထက်မနည်းတသဆို်းပပီ်း အမျာ်းအပပာ်း ဏ် ာ
49
People's Spring via Facebook (29 Dec 2025) https://tinyurl.com/yurd9c7,w
DVB (28 Dec 2025) ပဲခူ်းတိုင်း အကျဉ်းတထာင် ၃ ခို၌ နင
ို ်ငတ ်းအကျဉ်းသာ်းမျာ်းက တ ွ ်းတကာက်ပဲွကို ကနက
် ို့ ွ က် ဆနဒပပ
50
10