Polls close on first day of Myanmar's widely criticised 'sham' election
Newshour
BBC
4.2 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 28 December 2025
⏱️ 48 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Voting has ended in the initial phase of Myanmar's first election since the military seized power almost five years ago. Most opposition parties were banned, including that of the deposed democratic leader, Aung San Suu Kyi.
Also in the programme: The titan of French cinema, Brigitte Bardott has died aged 91; President Trump will meet Ukraine's leader, Volodymyr Zelensky, in Florida later on Sunday as efforts continue to reach a peace deal with Russia; and Sabalenka vs Kyrgios: in tennis - a true battle of the sexes or an opportunity for critics to belittle women's sport?
(Photo: Junta chief Min Aung Hlaing cast his ballot in the capital Nay Pyi Taw. Credit: Win Kyaw Thu/BBC)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts. |
| 0:09.8 | Hello and welcome to NewsHour from the BBC Wealth Service. |
| 0:13.7 | Coming to live from London, I'm Krupa Pardy. |
| 0:16.0 | Thank you for being with us. |
| 0:16.8 | Coming up on this edition of the programme, |
| 0:19.8 | the titan of French cinema, Brigitte Bardot, has died |
| 0:23.2 | at the age of 91. We're going to reflect on her life and legacy shortly how US immigration |
| 0:29.6 | policies have contributed to a boom in remissances sent to the Central American country of Honduras. |
| 0:36.1 | And we're going to be keeping an eye on that tennis match, dubbed the Battle of the Sexes, |
| 0:40.5 | taking place later in the day. |
| 0:42.2 | We will discuss whether this might help or indeed hinder the women's game. |
| 0:46.8 | But first, we turn our attention to elections taking place in the Southeast Asian country of Myanmar. |
| 0:52.2 | Not for the people, voting out of fear, not hope. Just some |
| 0:56.0 | of the headlines used to describe those elections. The first there since the military |
| 1:00.6 | seized power in a coup back in 2021. Now since then, the military has been fighting a civil war |
| 1:06.5 | on several fronts against both armed resistance groups who oppose the coup, as well as ethnic |
| 1:12.4 | armies which have their own militias. It lost control of large parts of the country in a series of |
| 1:17.6 | major setbacks, but took back territory this year following airstrikes enabled by the support |
| 1:22.4 | from China and Russia as well. Thousands of people have been killed. Millions have been forced from their homes. |
| 1:28.8 | The economy has been left in pieces. |
| 1:31.3 | And let's not forget, a huge humanitarian vacuum left as well. |
| 1:35.2 | Add to that, a devastating earthquake back in March this year. |
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