Myanmar military chief reaffirms election plans and calls for opposition to join politics

BANGKOK (AP) — Myanmar’s military chief used a speech at the annual Armed Forces Day celebration Thursday to reaffirm plans to hold a general election by year's end and call on opposition groups fighting the army to join in party politics and the electoral process.

Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing said his military government was preparing to hold the election in December and that it will be conducted according to security conditions in the country's various regions, where there is armed conflict.

He spoke before more than 7,000 military personnel at the parade, held in the capital Naypyitaw. Rifle-bearing servicemen and women stood to attention as the general reviewed their ranks from the back of an open vehicle. They then marched past him in order, saluting him as fighter jets flew overhead, firing off flares into the night sky.

The army's takeover from Aung San Suu Kyi ’s elected government in February 2021 has been met with widespread opposition, triggering armed resistance, plunging much of the country into conflict. The ruling military has since said an election was the primary goal but has repeatedly pushed back the date.

The plan for a general election is widely seen as an attempt to legitimize the military’s seizure of power through the ballot box and to deliver a result that ensures the generals retain control.

In his speech, Min Aung Hlaing also tried to justify the overthrow of Suu Kyi's elected government with familiar but widely discredited accusations of it failing to investigate irregularities in the November 2020 general election, and repeating that his government would hold “a free and fair election” and hand over power afterward.

The country’s current security situation, with the military believed to control less than half the country, poses a serious challenge to holding elections.

Critics have already said the military-planned election will be neither free nor fair because there is no free media and most of the leaders of Suu Kyi’s popular but now dissolved National League for Democracy party have been arrested. Suu Kyi, 79, is serving prison sentences totaling 27 years after being convicted in a series of politically tainted prosecutions brought by the military.

The 80th anniversary of Armed Forces Day marks the day in 1945 when the army of Myanmar, then known as Burma, began its fight against occupying Japanese forces who had taken over after driving out the British.

Min Aung Hlaing, during an early March visit to Belarus, a key ally, had announced the time frame for the election. He said then that 53 political parties have already submitted their lists to participate in the election.

State media reported that he reiterated the election plans at an official meeting on Tuesday, though the reports were unclear on whether the vote would be held in the last two weeks of December, the first two weeks of January or over a period extending for those four weeks.

Separately, state-run MRTV television reported Thursday that Min Aung Hlaing granted amnesty to seven foreign prisoners, including four Thais jailed in the southern coastal town of Kawthaung who will be deported.

It is not unusual for amnesties for prisoners to be announced on state or religious holidays.

It wasn’t immediately clear whether the four Thais were the fishermen arrested by Myanmar’s navy in November after patrol boats opened fire on Thai fishing vessels in waters close to their maritime border in the Andaman Sea.

Myanmar military officers stand at attention during a parade to commemorate Myanmar's 80th Armed Forces Day, in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, Thursday, March 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Aung Shine Oo)

Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, head of the military council, is seen on a screen during during a parade to commemorate Myanmar's 80th Armed Forces Day, in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, Thursday, March 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Aung Shine Oo)

Myanmar military officers march during a parade to commemorate Myanmar's 80th Armed Forces Day, in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, Thursday, March 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Aung Shine Oo)

Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, head of the military council, inspects officers during a parade to commemorate Myanmar's 80th Armed Forces Day, in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, Thursday, March 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Aung Shine Oo)

Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, head of the military council, inspects officers during a parade to commemorate Myanmar's 80th Armed Forces Day, in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, Thursday, March 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Aung Shine Oo)

BETHLEHEM, West Bank (AP) — Mohamad Al-Assi ran beneath the concrete wall as the sun rose over Bethlehem. His Nikes pounded the gravel, his breath fogging the air as graffiti and paint splatter blurred past with each stride.

The road along the barrier separating Israel from the occupied West Bank makes up a stretch of a marathon route that Al-Assi and thousands of others ran on Friday. The event is open to people in other parts of the world running in solidarity with the Palestinians and another, shorter race was happening in Gaza.

The race, known as the Palestine Marathon, was held for the first time in three years and was among the first big international events in the West Bank since the start of the Israel-Hamas war. Festivals, conferences and holiday festivities that once drew thousands have been scaled back or canceled because of the war in Gaza and heightened Israeli restrictions.

It marked a turning point for Al-Assi, 27, who was released from Israeli detention six months ago. Video from that day shows him gaunt-faced and hollow-eyed, his once muscular legs weakened after more than two and a half years of prison.

He began training in December, gradually upping his mileage every month since. He ran 62 miles (100 kilometers) that first month, and in April reached 135 miles (217 kilometers), according to his account on the tracking app Strava.

He jogs in the morning after his mother wakes him up in their home in Dheisheh, a Palestinian refugee camp made up of graffiti-covered cinderblock homes in tangled alleyways.

“The main difficulties we face are the cars on the roads and the presence of Israeli security forces along the route where I train,” Al-Assi said.

He had to suspend his training several times because of military operations in the camp.

“I would return home feeling hopeless because I couldn't do what I had intended to do,” Al-Assi said.

In the West Bank, runners cannot complete a 26.2-mile (42.2-kilometer) course without hitting a checkpoint or military gate, which is why Friday's marathon route looped around the same circuit twice.

They ran up through the narrow streets of two Palestinian refugee camps and down to a farming town next to Bethlehem where fields are divided by the concrete wall, barbed wire and cameras. The course hooked back to finish at Bethlehem’s Manger Square.

Organizers say the race highlights restrictions facing Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, where checkpoints can disrupt even routine commutes and where open land for hiking, biking and running is increasingly taken by Israeli settlements and outposts.

“Marathon runners anywhere may ‘hit a wall’ under the physical and emotional strain of completing the 42-kilometer race course," they said on the marathon's website.

But in the West Bank, they added, "runners literally hit the Wall.”

At a time when the West Bank’s economy is struggling and in the shadow of Gaza's fragile ceasefire and stalled rebuilding efforts, the atmosphere in Bethlehem was celebratory. Crowds gathered near the Church of the Nativity to cheer runners at the race's early morning start and finish. Bagpipes blared and drummers pounded out traditional rhythms through streets along the route.

On a beachside road in Nuseirat in central Gaza — which is roughly the length of a marathon — 15 disabled people, including amputees, ran a 2K, and a couple thousand of people ran a 5K. Thirteen years after the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA, canceled a 2013 marathon because Hamas forbade women from participating, the women were back.

Haya Alnaji, a 22-year-old woman who ran in the 5K, said the number of people taking part reflected that Palestinians in Gaza were determined to live and persevere despite the devastation wrought by more than two years of war.

“All of Gaza loves sports,” she said.

Al-Assi was arrested in April 2023, and imprisoned under administrative detention, which allows Israel to hold detainees for months without charge. Between 3,000 and 4,000 Palestinians are being held under that system, according to Israeli rights groups and the Palestinian Prisoners Society.

In October 2023, Al-Assi was sentenced for transferring money to suspicious entities, a charge he denies. Israel closely monitors money transfers — particularly to Gaza — for fear that funds could end up in the hands of militants. Palestinians, however, say donations and charitable contributions are often swept up in the dragnet. Israel’s military, Shin Bet and Prison Service did not answer questions about Al-Assi's charges.

In Israeli prisons — where detainees routinely complain of inadequate diets — Al-Assi said nearly everyone goes hungry. The weight he lost eroded the endurance built through 10 years of training.

“I have more muscle mass than fat, so when I lost weight, the loss came from my muscles rather than fat,” he said. “This had a major impact on my physical fitness.”

He also had to regain the mental fortitude to run a marathon.

“I was emotionally shattered after spending such a long period in prison,” he said.

On Friday, he collapsed to his knees, bowing and thanking God after finishing second overall, as supporters and journalists encircled him. He dedicated his run to Palestinians still in Israeli detention.

“After 32 months in prison, Mohamad Al-Assi is first in his class!” he shouted through tears, raising his hands and looking up to the sky.

__ Imad Isseid contributed from Bethlehem, West Bank and Abdel Kareem Hana from Nuseirat, Gaza Strip.

A Palestinian amputee runner takes part in the 2-kilometer Palestine Marathon along the coastal road near Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip, Friday, May 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Palestinian runners take part in the 5-kilometer Palestine Marathon along the coastal road near Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip, Friday, May 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Runners participate in the Palestine Marathon in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, Friday, May 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)

Runners pass by Israel's separation wall as they compete in the Palestine Marathon in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, Friday, May 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)

Palestinian Mohamad Al-Assi, who was released from Israeli detention six months ago, runs past Israel's separation wall as he trains ahead of the Palestine Marathon in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, Thursday, May 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Sam Metz)