Explained | Myanmar's decade of turmoil: Elections, coup and conflict

Nearly five years after it seized power, Myanmar's military is moving ​ahead with a multi-phase general election starting on Sunday, despite conflict across the country.

Here is a timeline of key moments in Myanmar's recent history:

NOVEMBER 2015: Myanmar holds its second general election since the end of five decades of military rule in ​2011. Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy party win by a landslide, routing ‌the military-backed ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party.

NOVEMBER 8, 2020: Myanmar holds a ⁠nationwide election in which the NLD claims ‌a landslide victory.

NOVEMBER 11, 2020: The main opposition, the army-backed USDP, calls for a re-run of the election, alleging irregularities.

FEBRUARY 1, 2021: As the NLD prepares to start its second term in office, Myanmar's military stages a coup, arresting Suu Kyi, President Win Myint and other senior figures from the ruling party. The military-backed Vice President Myint Swe becomes president but immediately ​transfers power to the military, which forms a junta to administer the country.

FEBRUARY 7, 2021: Protests sweep across Myanmar as tens of thousands of people take to the streets in Yangon and other parts of the country in the biggest demonstrations in years.

MARCH–APRIL 2021: The military violently suppresses demonstrators, ‌prompting many protesters ‌to take up arms against the junta, marking a shift toward a nationwide rebellion.

APRIL 2021: Remnants of Suu Kyi's party and pro-democracy activists establish a parallel civilian administration, ⁠the National Unity Government. Junta chief Min Aung Hlaing goes to Jakarta for an emergency meeting of Association of Southeast Asian Nations leaders, who agree a "five-point consensus" roadmap aimed at securing peace in Myanmar.

OCTOBER 2021: ASEAN decides to exclude Myanmar's military leadership from its summits over its failure ⁠to take steps to implement the peace plan.

DECEMBER 30, 2022: Suu Kyi is ⁠sentenced to 33 years in jail on charges ranging from electoral violations and breaching of coronavirus ‌restrictions to corruption - allegations she denies. The sentence is later reduced to 27 years.

MARCH 2023: ‌The military-appointed election commission dissolves the NLD and dozens of other political parties for failing to re-register under new rules.

OCTOBER 27, 2023: A collection of ethnic minority armed groups launch a coordinated offensive against the military near the Chinese border, taking ‍over swathes of territory and posing the most significant threat to the junta since the coup.

JULY 2025: The military government enacts a controversial law aimed at protecting an upcoming election from obstruction, disruption and destruction, with penalties including the death sentence.

AUGUST 1, 2025: Myanmar forms an interim government after ending a state of emergency lasting more than four years, with Min Aung Hlaing assuming the presidency while also remaining military chief.

AUGUST 18, 2025: Myanmar announces it will hold the first phase of a multi-stage election on December 28, outlining a roadmap for the first national polls since the coup.

OCTOBER 29: Myanmar's junta announces that the ​second phase of the election will be on ‌January 11, covering 100 more townships across the country.

DECEMBER 14: Junta spokeperson Zaw Min Tun fires back at international criticism of the election, saying the move has public support and is not being conducted with coercion, force or suppression.