Myanmar court sentences activists to 37 years over election protest

xwhatsapp-strokecopylinkgoogleAdd Al Jazeera on GoogleinfoA campaign posters for the second round of the general election on December 29, 2025 in Yangon, Myanmar. [Lauren DeCicca/Getty Images]By The Associated PressPublished On 29 Jul 202629 Jul 2026Myanmar courts have sentenced nine activists to up to 37 years in prison for participating in a protest that urged the public to boycott last December’s elections.

Eight protesters against the military government, including prominent activist Htet Myat Aung, were sentenced to 37 years on Tuesday by two courts in Mandalay, an activist group said on Wednesday.

The sentences were imposed following the demonstrators’ convictions under the electoral law and counterterrorism law, according to May Hnin, a spokesperson for the Anti-Junta Forces Coordination Committee-Mandalay.

A ninth activist was sentenced to 27 years after being convicted under the counterterrorism law, she added.

The activists were arrested on December 4, a day after they staged a flash protest in downtown Mandalay, the country’s second-largest city.

The demonstrators were urging the public to boycott the elections set for between December 25, 2025, and January 25, 2026, and to reject mandatory conscription.

They also called for the release of political prisoners detained after the military seized power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in 2021.

May Hnin said she believed the military imprisoned the activists for peacefully protesting to instill fear among the public and secure its hold on power.

“These sentences are proof that a government that came to power through a sham election can never establish a federal democratic system,” she said.

The activists will not appeal the verdicts because they do not believe the sentences will be overturned, May Hnin said.

The military-backed government has not publicly commented on the sentences.

In July 2025, Myanmar adopted a law that bans “any speech, organising, inciting, protesting or distributing leaflets in order to destroy a part of the electoral process”.

It imposes punishments that range all the way up to the death penalty.

More than 200 people were charged under the new law before the December election, which saw the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party win a majority.

Opponents and independent observers said the election, which did not include major opposition parties, was neither free nor fair.