The Asian Network for Free Elections (ANFREL) launched in 2025 the third iteration of its media fellowship program on reporting elections focused on the Myanmar Junta's staged elections.

Since the military staged a coup in 2021 after the 2020 general election, the Myanmar junta is organizing elections in three phases: (1) 28 December 2025, (2) 11 January 2026, and (3) 25 January 2026. The elections are being staged amid ongoing armed conflict, human rights violations and restrictive electoral environment.

First launched in 2022, ANFREL's Media Fellowship Program on Election Reporting equips journalists from independent news outlets and freelance journalists in empowering the electorate through crucial reporting of underrepresented voices and underreported issues during elections.

With the theme "Narratives and Voices in Myanmar's Democratic Struggle", the third ANFREL Media Fellowship on Election Reporting shed light on the plight of the people of Myanmar amid the junta-planned elections.

In Season 3 Episode 01 of The Election Observer podcast, ANFREL talks to the media fellows on reporting the Myanmar junta's staged elections and the challenges they faced in shedding light on what's happening in Myanmar.

Journalists and ANFREL media fellows Nathaphob Sungkate from Thailand and Tarushi Aswani from India are joining us in this episode.