Min Aung Hlaing, former Senior General of Myanmar’s armed forces, was sworn in as president on April 10th of this year. His administration is the first formally elected since the military coup that restarted ongoing conflicts in 2021.
Myanmar’s parliament elections, which began their first phase in December of 2025, ended with the army-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party winning 89 of 102 parliament seats, roughly 87% of the governing body. Combined with the quarter of additional seats given to serving military officers as designated by the country’s constitution, the military holds a firm grasp on Myanmar’s government.
However, a number of leading democracies and democratic watchdogs, including the United Kingdom and the European Union, condemned the elections as shams. The military imposed strict political speech restrictions leading up to the election and banned many opposition parties from participating. In addition, according to the Council on Foreign Relations, large swaths of the country, and especially rural areas, were unable to vote because of damaged infrastructure and ongoing local conflicts that made it impossible for citizens to get to the polls. Notably, areas where many ethnic minorities reside were excluded from polling for these reasons.
Despite major issues with the country’s elections, the president has been incredibly active since his inauguration. In his first week in office, Hlaing pardoned over 4,000 prisoners held by the government, and reduced sentences for popular figurehead Aung San Suu Kyi and former president Win Myint. However, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, the country still contains over 30,000 political prisoners behind bars. Many Myanmar people are concerned about how beneficial these commuted sentences will be and if they will last. Volker Turk, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, tweeted on April 17th, “All those detained unjustly since the coup – including state counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi – need to be released immediately and unconditionally. There must be an end to the unrelenting violence against all of Myanmar’s people.”
The president has also taken steps to normalize the country’s foreign policy. In his inauguration speech, he said he is, “hoping to restore normal relations with Asean,” an organization of which Myanmar is a member state but has been ostracized from since 2021. Hlaing considers the election a sign that the country may be able to emerge from relative international isolation as important regional partner countries, including China, Japan, Vietnam, Cambodia, the Philippines, and India, all sent observers to monitor the election. According to the Council on Foreign Relations, there are signs that the White House may also use the election to grant more legitimacy to the Myanmar government.
While his actions at home and abroad have lowered the pressure placed on the regime, Hlaing has been unable to stop the ongoing conflict in Myanmar. On April 13th, Hlaing said in a government meeting that he wanted rebel groups that have not yet signed a ceasefire deal to join talks within 100 days, but major organizations have already declined his offer. The Karen National Union rejected a deal following his statement, after which the Chin National Front released a statement expressing that they seek a federal democratic system free from military influence, and that until that time, will continue to be active.
Hlaing, who spearheaded the coup that unseated the democratically elected parliament and incited mass unrest in the country, has been the subject of international controversy since before 2021. The International Criminal Court Prosecutor applied for an arrest warrant for Min Aung Hlaing as early as 2017 in response to his treatment of the Rohingya people. The battle for this warrant reemerged leading up to the 2025 elections due to the advocacy of human rights organizations such as the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women and the Chin Human Rights Organization (C.H.R.O.). They claimed that the standards applied to other leaders, including Omar al-Bashir, the former President of Sudan, should also be applied to Hlaing. The Executive Director of the C.H.R.O., Salai Za Uk Ling, stated that, “A warrant is essential not only to deliver justice for Rohingya genocide survivors but also to deter further atrocities being committed today.”
Though the president’s actions show a desire for peace, the underlying issues in Myanmar, including human rights abuses, democratic backsliding, and severe poverty, have not been tackled. There is no telling what a government still being controlled by the military will do if it is able to gain full control over the country. Although peace is necessary to recuperate the damages done since 2021, the cycle of military regimes in Myanmar that has kept the country locked out of peaceful development seems set to continue.
