BANGKOK — Myanmar’s military-appointed election commission announced Monday that elections will begin Dec. 28, setting a date for polls that critics have denounced as a sham intended to normalize the army’s 2021 seizure of power even as armed conflict rages throughout much of the country.

The dates for the subsequent phases of the elections, which authorities plan to hold over December and January for security reasons, will be announced later, Myanmar's Union Election Commission said,

Myanmar will begin its general elections on 28 December, its military government announced, in a phased poll widely condemned as a sham that will be used to entrench the junta's power. This will be the first vote since the junta seized power in a bloody coup in 2021, and imprisoned democratically elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi.