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Here is this week’s edition of the Mekong Memo for Myanmar.
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Headlines:
Generals Win Election They Scripted
Beijing Boosts the Status Quo
Election-Day Message Includes Funeral Bombing
Death From Above on a Budget
Ghost Ships Keep Junta Airborne
Generals Win Election They Scripted
The military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party started celebrating victory on Monday after a month-long election that excluded opposition parties, banned public criticism, and skipped over 67 of the country’s 330 townships that the junta doesn’t control. The USDP was able to bag at least 290 parliamentary seats and, combined with 166 constitutionally reserved military seats, will find itself with well over the 294 they need to form a government. Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, who staged the 2021 coup and is expected to become president when parliament comes together in March, toured polling stations in civilian clothes and pshawed international criticism: “We recognize the people’s vote,” he said, apparently forgetting for the moment that Aung San Suu Kyi is still locked up and her National League for Democracy party remains dissolved. For investors, it’s clear that the governance environment isn’t likely to improve, sanctions risks are unchanged, and the civil war won’t going to come to a end because retired generals have been able to swap uniforms for longyis.
Read more: Aljazeera (Final election phase), Irrawaddy (Airstrikes and Empty Ballot Stations), Manila Times (Declaration of victory)
Beijing Boosts the Status Quo
China says it supports using the ballot box to achieve “broader, more solid, and lasting peace,” as well as confirming that the election was “smooth and orderly” with “active” participation. This will be music to the ears of those in Naypyidaw, but its diplomatic talk for legitimizing a vote the West is diminishing as little more than theater. Beijing’s statement matters less for what it says about democracy and more for what it shows about the junta’s staying power. Western condemnation looks increasingly like background noise as China decides who its willing to work with.
Read more: News CGTN
Election-Day Message Includes Funeral Bombing
The final phase of the election was completed with non-combat zone airstrikes on a funeral in Kachin State’s Kawngjar village, and a wedding party in Magway’s Tatgone. Both attacks resulted in a handful of deaths. Another 8,000 tried to disappear into the jungle in Salin Township as the junta’s ground offensive rolled through ahead of Sunday’s vote. The Kachin Independence Army’s Colonel Naw Bu said the moves were “deliberate terror to paralyse the population” before polls opened.
Read more: Asia News
Death From Above on a Budget
Fighter jets may be an unnecessary extravagance when a motorized paraglider will do. The Tatmadaw is using commercial paramotors and gyrocopters as flying lawnmowers to attack civilians and opposition forces across in the central flatlands. In October, a paramotor pilot dropped two shells on a candlelight vigil in Sagaing, killing at least 24 anti-election protesters. Another gyrocopter attack hit a hospital, killing the chief physician and two staff members. The aircraft can stay airborne for about three hours and can apparently carry 30 or 40 mortar shells that pilots can drop by hand, sometimes cutting their engines first so that they can glide silently toward targets.
Read more: AP
Ghost Ships Keep Junta Airborne
Having said all that, however, the jets are still flying too. The junta imported more than 109,000 tonnes of aviation fuel in 2025, 69% more than 2024, and the highest volume since the 2021 coup. They’re able to use tactics borrowed from Russia’s sanction-dodging playbook (details in the article). Western sanctions led by Washington and London haven’t been able to stem the flow yet, and the military’s main arms suppliers (namely Russia and China) remain firmly in the generals’ corner. The shadow fleet’s growing sophistication is a compliance headache worth watching.
Read more: AP
That’s it for this week… THANK YOU.
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