Myanmar will hold the initial phase of its general election on December 28, state television said on Monday, outlining a roadmap for the first polls in the war-torn country in nearly five years that have already been derided by critics as a sham.

Myanmar will hold nationwide elections beginning Dec. 28, setting a date for polls that have been denounced as a sham to normalize the army’s 2021 seizure of power even as much of the country is wracked by civil war.

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.